WEC on Versus

Watching WEC's debut right now, the mix show (think UFC Unleashed) called "Wrekcage" before they show the live WEC Event. I'm jacked up, it feels almost like a UFC Night at my bro's except there's fewer drunken fools destroying recreational vehicles. I have to do it myself.
All UFC refs, Chuck and Kendall Grove made an appearance, Tito too. Interesting.
I'll chat some more later.
Don't read more if you don't want spoilers.





Brian Stann is an impressive fighter, but in the previews he's piling on the "fallen brothers" stuff a bit. I've seen two of his fights tonight and both times he's told us how he's fighting for his fallen Marine brothers, or the other guy is fighting all of the Marines or something. OK already. He's fighting Craig Zellner. They're doing intros. Uneventful brief staredown. The WEC cage seems smaller than the UFC cage. Stann is throwing hard knees and staggering Zellner...Z looks stunned....zellner keeps trying to shoot and getting stuffed, ending on his back eating punches. Zellner landed a punch, but he's bleeding from a cut on his cheek. Throwing sub attempts but Stann is stopping them. Stann throws hard nkees...KO is coming says the color guy...goes to the ground. massive punches on the ground...ref stoppage with 5 seconds left. Could have been stopped earlier, the ref (Shorley?) let it go a little long, Zellner ate about ten punches with his arms flailing. Impressive work from Stann. He looks like the real deal, but I don't know what his opponent's level has been thus far...he beat up Eric Cantwell with a number of sharp punches and one pinpoint strike to the ear that put him out long enough to stop the fight.
Versus is promoing "Tapout", a new MMA reality show that will debut after the fights. Boobies right on the homepage...
Okay, Stann did his postfight interview in a...flak vest I guess...man oh man. I understand you are a loyal Marine. Lay it on thicker. I hate the fact that I come off anti-Marine when I say stuff like that, I couldn't be farther. I guess it's like religion for me...keep it to yourself. You're fighting for money, not for the Corps.


Alex Karalexis vs Josh Smith...smith looks nervous coming out. throws a variety of strikes that miss after getting tagged with the ol overhand right from fighting munchkin karalexis...alex has him on the ground and is throwing leather through upkicks from smith...good first round, lots of energy. Karalexis has a big mouse under his left eye, it looks swollen shut. second round...superman punch from smith connects and a follow up solid...knees from alex...alex's eye is even worse now, massive mouse...on the ground, smith is tying him up and taking some body blows. triangle! karalexis picks the kid up and is looking to slam...there it is, alex busts out of the triangle with the slam. neat. side control for karalexis. cross side..... still on top, smith is fighting from his back, lots of scrambling. good fight! some nice grappling and scrambling going on. karalexis ends the round standing kicking smith in the ass. he caught one solid-looking upkick but so far i give karalexis both rounds.

round three...karalexis gets him on the ground and beats him for a long time. throws what apparently is an illegal stomp with about .5 seconds remaining and Big John McCarthy stops the fight and takes a point...are stomps illegal in WEC? don't know. horn blows immediately after big John restarts and he turns around saying "what'd you do that for, i called time!" weird ending. decent fight. Karalexis won. He used the interesting techinque of punching Smith right on the asshole when he had him against the fence. i've never even considered punching someone in the asshole. here's the judge's call. probably going to piss me off. I want more asshole-punching. Couldn't be more heterosexual.
one judge had a draw because of the point taken, he must have had one round for smith...the other two had it for karalexis. he looks like a crazy cartoon character with that swollen-up eye. his cornerman apparently got in an accident and he did a shout-out for him. Don't drink and drive. I don't know if that's what happened, but still, don't freakin do it. I had it 30-27 karalexis, minus a point.

only comment on larson-knabjian (because i'm getting bored liveblogging and no one reads this anyways): It's a fight for the most dominant nose-style. Larson's nose goes straight down like some feeding proboscis on an insect, and knabjian's goes upwards, like the cubert, the professor's kid on Futurama.
Let the best nose win!

pointy-down nose wins. wow! first punch. also a big knee. Brock Larson calls out Condit, who he was supposed to fight before Condit got hurt or something.

Rani Yahya chokes out Hominick without even knowing it, apparently..."That was spontanus! I don't even remember it!" says Yahya, watching the replay of him chasing Hominick all over the ring getting punched and eventually taking his man's back.
That's gotta feel great if you're Hominick. That guy just beat you in your sleep. Funniest fight of the night for sure.

Impressive grappling display from Farrar-Faber...rear naked from Faber ends it 3 minutes in, good fight. Frank Mir almost spontaneously aborted he was so happy. He also has a head shaped like an ice cream cone.

Excellent event all things considered. I liked most of the fights, and Faber is an interesting fighter. Stann should be worth watching as well. Brock Larson was impressive and should win the KO of the Night. I'll definitely be watching WEC again.