lesser promotion in Zuffa’s arsenal, WEC is turning out to be a real winner. Urijah Faber defeats Pulver in five-round war We expected a war from this fight, and it surpassed those expectations. Urijah Faber has truly become a powerhouse at 145 pounds. His striking skills are heavy and his quickness added to his power makes him a devastating striker at the weight. Pulver did a nice job nullifying Faber’s ground game the best he could. While Faber landed some hard elbow strikes on the ground, Pulver was able to out wrestle Faber in some instances of the fight and get the fight back to standing. At one point during the fight, Pulver landed a heavy combination that stunned Faber. Faber stumbled backwards toward the cage, and Pulver moved in for the kill. It was a flash of the fight that nearly ended Faber’s reign, but smart footwork and avoidance allowed Faber to recover. Surprisingly, the punch didn’t seem to have a lot of mustard on it, a testament to Pulver’s power. The battle between both featherweights should go down as an instant classic in many MMA fans’ collections. Combination of great striking, solid ground work, Pulver’s iron chin, and Faber’s relentless cardio were all on display in this fight. Will we see a Pulver vs. Faber II? I can only hope that Jens can make his way back to the top. Torres v. Maeda: The definition of MMA Miguel Torres may possibly be the culmination of what many analysts believe is coming in the world of MMA. He’s a complete fighter. He has some of the best striking skills in his weight class; he’s an animal on the ground with good submission skills and unmatched transitioning quickness. He’s always active in damaging his opponents, and his cardio is legendary. He could be the champion for quite some time, and potentially threaten someone like Faber if he chose to move up. Maeda deserves a standing ovation for his performance as well. Even though he ended up losing due to his face being swelled up from Torres’s relentless jabbing attacks, he fought venerably against the champion. He damaged Torres in some flurries and proved to escape the ground game when he was in real danger on the ground. His power didn’t show up too much in the fight due to Torres working the quick strikes, but Maeda could definitely dish out the punishment against other opponents. Other action Mark Munoz used some great wrestling technique to position himself on top of Chuck Grigsby in the first round of their matchup. Munoz knocked Grigsby out cold after gaining top control when Grigsby tried to latch on a leglock and left his face open for the smashing. McCullough wasn’t impressive in his win over Kenneth Alexander, but Alexander looked to be the much more explosive fighter for most of the fight. Alexander went for take downs and head kicks throughout the three round decision, but was unable to stop McCullough’s combination flurries that ended with hard leg kicks. Cerrone won as expected via a submission very quickly in the first round. He’s definitely a guy to watch out for in the WEC as he has a very slick ground game that could prove to be dangerous to many of the strikers in the promotion. Mike Brown upsets Jeff Curran via an unanimous decision while Will Ribeiro did the same thing to former champion Chase Beebe. Other winners include Tim McKenzie, Alex Serdyukov, Jose Aldo, and Dominick Cruz. My picks were completely garbage for the undercard, so I suppose I’ll need to do some more research for the next WEC event. Overall, a great night for the WEC, especially after the horrible CBS show in Newark the day before. WEC looked like a well put together show with great production values, decent commentating by Harris and Mir, and solid action with fights like Pulver vs. Faber and Torres vs. Maeda. WEC 34 should go down as one of the best cards this year in terms of hard hitting action. Full Article