| 23 April 2010
Trying to predict the Fight of the Night for tomorrow's WEC 48 must be like how Tiger Woods feels in a whorehouse - there's just too many choices. Will it be the headlining match, the Jose Aldo-Urijah Faber featherweight title fight? How about the rematch of 2009's Fight of the Year, Ben Henderson vs Donald Cerrone for the lightweight crown? Or how about former featherweight champ Mike Brown going up against the always dangerous Manny Gamburyan? Or could it be the tilt between two top 10 bantamweights in Takeya Mizugaki and Rani Yahya that is scheduled for the non-televised portion of the event?
World Extreme Cagefighting's debut on pay-per-view has the potential to be the best MMA card of the year. While recent events by the "big name" MMA brands, the UFC and Strikeforce, have disappointed, there isn't much chance of that happening at Arco Arena on Saturday night. The Aldo-Faber fight should be electric, with the hometown crowd going nuts for their native son, The California Kid Urijah Faber. But Faber is more than just hype and a pretty face - he's the most dominant featherweight in the history of the sport. He's also one of the toughest, going the distance versus Mike Brown despite breaking both of his hands early in the match. Matching him up against the wrecking machine that is Jose Aldo is a featherweight match made in heaven. Both guys possess the speed and power to make this match dyn-o-mite.
And do we really need to say anything else about Ben Henderson and Donald Cerrone. If you saw their first encounter from 2009 you know what to expect from these guys. Even when they aren't fighting one another both these guys put on Fight of the Night quality matches, so when they are matched together it should come as no surprise when they rock the house. Meanwhile, Mike Brown seems hell-bent on a getting his belt back from Aldo, but he'll have to get past The Ultimate Fighter 5 finalist Manny Gamburyan, who is battle-tested having faced the likes of Sean Sherk and Nate Diaz earlier in his career.
If you are trying to introduce the sport of mixed martial arts to a non-fan, this is the event to do it with. Unfortunately, as is the case in boxing, the bigger fighters get all the attention while the smaller guys put on a better show. WEC's fighters deserve mainstream attention and this is the event with the potential to do just that. My only complaint is that Zuffa didn't make this PPV cheaper than normal to entice more people to give the WEC a try. Nevertheless, hopefully WEC 48 brings some new fans to the sport as it is sure to not disappoint - there will be no Anderson Silva-like theatrics here.
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