Aug

7

WEC 35 in Review

August 7, 2008 |


WEC LogoWorld Extreme Cagefighting (WEC) may be a “smaller” show but what it lacks in size it sure makes up for in excitement. There is some very intelligent commentary from Frank Mir and simply having Urijah Faber in the organization makes it a local favorite around these parts. That guy is an animal who obviously works very hard and who represents the sport of MMA very well. Faber wasn’t on the WEC 35 card however. He’s scheduled to fight Mike Brown in the WEC on September 10.

One fighter that was on the card is Brian Bowles who is undefeated at 5-0. He matched up with Damacio Page for the first fight of the night. The two bantamweights came out firing bombs and set such a pace that Frank Mir forgot to talk. Bowles got on top in Page’s guard early after Page slipped while throwing a kick. Bowles managed to pass and lock in a guillotine but Page escaped and pressed Bowles against the fence. The two fighters broke up and went at it again on the feet. It looked like Page hurt Bowles with a leg kick because right afterwards Bowles tried to take him down. Page stuffed the shot and then made one of his own. He actually picked Bowles up to slam him but Bowles quickly locked up the guillotine again while being held up in the air by Page. Bowles actually trapped one of Page’s arms with his leg. Page then went for the big slam and for some reason stopped half way through. I guess he was trying to shake Bowles off but it didn’t work and it looked like it only yanked his neck as Bowles held on to get the submission victory with 1:30 left in the first round. Somewhere Domacio Page is walking around a few inches taller.

Next up was Marcus Hicks who is a BJJ blackbelt with a badass guillotine and KO power. Hicks took on Jamie Varner, the current WEC lightweight titleholder. Varner had the height advantage but Hicks is such a compact wrecking ball that I wasn’t sure the reach difference would come that much into play. Early on after a couple of strikes the two fighters clinched against the cage where Varner tried to press Hicks’ head to the side for a knee. Hicks caught the knee, picked Varner up and slammed him to the mat. Varner got back up in all of one second but got muscled back to the ground where Hicks locked up his trademark guillotine. The guy is such a compact and strong fighter that he’s been getting just about everyone with that submission. However Varner escaped and circled away off the fence. After a bit more back and forth Varner landed a solid body kick and then got Hicks in the Muay Thai clinch (called the plum) where he delivered more damage again to the body. The two fighters then really went at it with strikes and here Varner used his reach advantage very effectively. It is one thing to have a reach advantage and quite another to make skillful use of it. Hicks took a hell of a beating as Varner turned it on and displayed both a great chin and a huge amount of heart. Eventually Hicks went down and the fight ended with 2:52 left in the first round.

Welterweights Brock Larson and Carlo Prater matched up next. To say this fight did not last very long would be an understatement. Despite Prater possessing a MMA record of 23-6-1 the 24-2 Larson made very short work of him. A big straight left (Larson is a southpaw) connected right down the middle which was followed up with vicious ground and pound to secure the stoppage.

The second title fight of the evening was between WEC light heavyweight titleholder and US Marine Brain Stan and Steve Cantwell. From very early on I got the feeling that Cantwell had Stan’s number. The two fighters had met in the cage previously with Stan then emerging the victor. However this time it was a different story. Although Stan looked his usual dangerous self when the two fighters exchanged on the feet the superior striking technique of Cantwell really stood out. To my mind Cantwell took the first round and Stan was looking a little frustrated with his inability to connect cleanly. Towards the end of round two Cantwell had Stan against the cage and gradually wore him down. Stan fought back very hard all the way. That guy is a warrior and I’m a big fan. However it wasn’t his night and his youthfulness in the sport of MMA appeared to be exposed by Cantwell. The fight was stopped with just under a minute left in the second round with Cantwell the victor and new WEC light heavyweight champion.

The featherweight bout up next was contested between 21-year-old Micah Miller and an even younger Josh Grispi at age 19. Grispi came out and landed a nice inside leg kick that sent Miller to the mat. Grispi then let Miller back up and again landed a nice kick to Miller’s lead leg. After a couple of short exchanges Grispi caught Miller with a counter right hand as he circled away and dropped him back to the mat. Grispi jumped right on top of Miller and finished the fight. Miller protested the stoppage but on the replay it looked pretty clear that he had gone out and probably didn’t know it. The fight was over with 4:12 still to go in the first round.

Finally, the main event of the WEC 35 card. Carlos “the natural born killer” Condit was set to defend his WEC welterweight title against Japan’s Hiromatsu Miura. This fight turned into an all out war. Both fighters ended up completely exhausted and yet continued to give it all they had. Miura has some sick judo which he applied to the MMA game exceptionally well. Miura threw Condit to the mat a number of times during the course of the fight and managed to reverse many bad positions on the ground. This fight had it all and covered all the broad ranges and skills of MMA. Finally, at the very end of the 4th round Carlos managed to land a knee to Miura’s chin and got the stoppage, retaining his WEC welterweight title after an awesome back and forth battle.

WEC 35 in Review

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