5. The WEC always delivers: World Extreme Cagefighting is one of those organizations that never fails to bring the excitement. They only have three weight classes, 155, 145 and 135 and it’s a known fact that lighter weight classes = more exciting fights. These guys are like energizer bunnies, they hardly ever gas and they go at each other for 15 (or 25) minutes straight if need be. Every single WEC event in the past 6 months has provided a fight of the year candidate (Brown/ Faber 2, Torres/ Mizugaki, Cerrone/ Henderson, etc). If you love great fights, you’ll love the WEC.
4. WEC fighters deserve recognition. Despite being such an incredibly exciting fight organization, the WEC is treated like the red-headed stepchild of the UFC. They are owned by Zuffa, the same company that owns the UFC, and they simply aren’t marketed or paid as much as they deserve. The only way for this to change is for people to check them out. It’s a travesty that casual MMA fans don’t know some of the best fighters in the world. It’s time to change that.
3. It’s Free: As long as you have some form of cable (not DirectTV) this entire event will be broadcast free on the Versus network, just like all of their events. For the fights you’ll be seeing, this is an absolutely amazing deal. If I had to choose between seeing this event and UFC 105, I would choose WEC 44
2. Two potential number one contender fights. If that wasn’t enough, there are two fights with number one contender implications. Former UFC lightweights Manny Gamburyan and Leonard Garcia will duke it out for a title shot at featherweight. Also, Danny Castillo and Shane Roller will battle for number one contender at lightweight.
1. The Featherweight Championship fight: Brown vs Aldo will be one of the best fights of 2009. If you’ve never seen a Jose Aldo fight, stop what you are doing and go look up some of his highlights on youtube. You wouldn’t know he’s a Brazilian jiu jitsu black belt because he has won his last 5 fights by knockout (his last fight in a ridiculous 8 seconds). The champ Mike Brown is no slouch either, he has tremendous wrestling and punching power which he used to dethrone the previous champ Urijah Faber (and hand him 2 of his 3 career losses). Aldo is the quicker fighter, but Brown is stronger, this looks to be a serious human chess match. Don’t let this event fall under the radar of all the UFC and Strikeforce cards that have gone on lately, you’ll be kicking yourself later if you do.