With WEC 51 in the books many stories come away from that great night of fights. Starting off the card was a tough back and forth war between Leonard Garcia and Mark Hominick. Despite breaking his hand in the fight Hominick pulled out a split decision.
Following that fight came, George Roop and ‘The Korean Zombie’ Chan Sung Jung. In the first round Roop used his reach extremely well and kept Jung on the outside. Living up to his nickname ‘The Zombie’ just kept moving forward, trying to get into the pocket and throw with Roop. Roop kept moving very well and made sure Jung didn’t get comfortable and pulled out a convincing first round. Coming out in the second though Roop starting throwing more high kicks and mixing up his strikes much more and really pushing the pace. You could see this was making Jung a little uncomfortable. Then at 1:30 into the second round Roop though a beautiful high kick which caught Jung and knocked him out, and awarding Roop the Knock Out of the Night bonus of an extra ten thousand dollars.
The televised Versus card then showed an undercard fight, of the first fighter to come from Chinese mainland to fight in the United States, Tiequan Zhang who fought Pablo Garza. Both fighters came out strong and were throwing very hard. Zhang then pulled out a very slick guillotine choke and finished the fight in the first round. A big win for the Chinese fighter making his United States MMA debut.
The third fight on the main card was Miguel ‘Angel’ Torres and Charlie Valencia. Valencia a well know California guy but does not have a big name at this point. Both guys came out tough in the first round. Miguel, who is now training in Montreal with the TriStar gym under Firas Zahabi, has become almost a completely new fighter. Torres used his much longer reach very effectively and kept Valencia on the outside. A much more focused Torres used great standup and controlled the first round with a late knock down at the end of the round. Round two started out with Valencia coming forward and strong right at Torres firing off some kicks and hard punches. Torres throws a hard shot and connects with Valencia and rocks him, and Torres pounces on him. Going for the finish Miguel takes his back and works for the rare naked choke and finishes the fight in the second round, awarding him the Submission of the Night. Torres looked like a new and focused man, and looked lean and mean. He sounded much more focused and is ready to make another run at the title and within a fight or two he will be there, and if he keeps this trend up, there is no reason why he cannot be the WEC champion again in 2011.
The co-main event on the WEC 51 card was Donald ‘Cowboy’ Cerrone and Jamie Varner. This rematch of one of the fight of the year candidates from 2010 became a fight of the year candidate for 2011, and Fight of the Night for WEC 51. Both Cerrone and Varner hate each other and were not going hold anything back. Cerrone came out strong right out of the gate. Cowboy came out throwing kicks, knees, and hard punches. Cerrone’s striking has improved even more and was bringing it to Varner. Varner came forward and hard right back at Cerrone who dropped and took Varner down hard. The first fight Cowboy never had a desire to do this because of Varner’s great wrestling ability, but not this time. Cowboy had numerous takedowns throughout the fight, which you could see got to Varner right away, he never had expected that to happen. For three rounds Cowboy Cerrone pushed the pace and brought it Varner. Although Varner did bring it back at Cerrone and clipped him a couple good times he could finish Cerrone. Cerrone picked apart Varner on the feet and on the ground, winning all three rounds. After the decision Cerrone offered Varner the rubber match, and stated he is not looking for a title fight right away and he just wants to have fun exciting fights. Cerrone is working his way back up the ladder and is going to be a strong contender once again soon.
The main event of the card Manny ‘The Anvil’ Gamburyan squared off with the champion Jose Aldo Junior. Manny is an Ultimate Fighter Season 5 finalist at 155 pounds, who is now fighting at 145 pounds, and coming off a huge knock out over former champion Mike Brown was focus and ready to bring it 110 percent at Jose Aldo Junior. When it was time for the champion to make his way to the cage Jose Aldo Junior came out just radiating confidence. Aldo had this swagger to him, like he knew something that no one else did. Walking out with some pep in his step and ready to win he made his way into the cage. Personally wanting to see Manny have a big upset, I knew at that point it wasn’t going to happen. Aldo standing in a traditional Muay Thai stance met Gamburyan in the center of the cage. Gamburyan wasted no time to start throwing some hard punch and a stiff jab, as Aldo counters with one of his mean low kicks. Gamburyan kept moving and throwing while Aldo just kept slipping the punches and countering and hit Manny with a hard right hand and poked him in the eye. Manny took a minute to recover and came back out and finished the round strong. Coming out in round two Aldo opened up more and throwing more kicks and hard punches and connected a couple times. This drives Gamburyan to shoot in on Aldo who used his great takedown defense and with Gamburyan being stunned from a hard uppercut on his way in turtles up as Aldo takes his back and starts throwing hard punches under Manny arms and knocked him out as Manny collapsed on his face.
Jose Aldo Junior is building his case as being one of the top pound for pound fighters in the world. Tearing through all of his opponents. Aldo is looking at fighting in the 155 lightweight class as well as 145. I don’t think anyone would not want to see Aldo fighting in both weight classes and you cannot assume he isn’t going to do well. He is quiet and cerebral, and just wants to fight the best. Could Cerrone be his welcome to the lightweight class? Cerrone sure welcomes that idea, and Reed Harris, the Dana White of the WEC, isn’t counting out that option. Jose Aldo Junior has already taken out two former champions and numerous other top fighters, can he be stopped? Who will be the guy to stop him if he can? These questions are on everyone’s mind and I know I will be tuning in to see, and I will not be counting out Aldo again anytime soon.
Photo Courtesy of MMAJunkie.com
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