WEC 53: Results And Breakdown

Added on Dec 17, 2010 by John Petit in

UFC & MMA

A fantastic end to an era of mixed martial arts. WEC held its final event, and once again they posted up with a great night of MMA. We saw two championship fights, we saw what will now be called as “THE KICK.” and we saw the WEC cage door close for the last time. This was 27^th WEC card I covered, and the first one I saw was somewhere around 14 or 15 (I have long since gone back and saw the other fights for the record.)

This is how the main card played out.

WEC 53 Bonuses:

Fight of the Night: Ben Henderson vs. Anthony Pettis

Knockout of the Night: Eddie Wineland

Submission of the Night: Shane Roller

Lightweight Championship bout:

Ben Henderson vs. Anthony Pettis

The first round was Henderson controlling the pace, and coming forward on Henderson. Pettis had some decent strikes, but Henderson managed to bring Pettis to the floor a few times and won the round. Pettis managed to get up both times, but didn’t do enough to win the round. The second round was even closer, but it was Pettis who was on the positive side. At one point, Pettis came forward, and it looked like he dropped Henderson, but it might have also been a slip. After a sneaky takedown in the third, Pettis managed to get the back of Henderson and locked up a body triangle. Thats how most of this round went, and a clear 10-9 for Pettis. In the fourth, Pettis pulled guard with a guillotine choke, but it slipped off. Henderson worked to Pettis’ back and almost had the rear naked choke. Pettis worked out of it, and rolled right into the guard of Henderson to get out of trouble. This round was all Henderson. Going into the fifth it was clearly anyones fight, and most of the round was extremely close. Then One of the coolest things I have ever seen in cage happened. Pettis charged forward and launched himself off the cage with his right leg, then used the same foot to smack Henderson right in the face. This sent Henderson sprawling to the mat, and Pettis going in for the kill. He came real close to finishing the fight, but the Henderson was saved by the bell. I watch up to 700+ fights a year these days, and I have never seen anything like that. Especially not when the stakes were this high. Amazing end, to the WEC.

Pettis defeated Henderson via unanimous decision (48-47, 49-46, 48-47) to become the final WEC Lightweight Champion.

Bantamweight Championship bout:

Dominick Cruz vs. Scott Jorgensen

This fight was all Cruz. Cruz was the quicker fighter, he was the more technical fighter, and he was the more focused fighter. Jorgensen’s ability to take a shot was clearly shown, but at times Cruz was just making him look silly. Data from CompuStrike illustrates the dominance of Cruz’s performance, as the champion landed 104 power strikes to Jorgensen’s 14, out-striking him 283-55 in total. Impressive win and some impressive new hardware as he left the cage with both belts.

Cruz defeated Jorgensen via unanimous decision (50-45, 50-45, 50-45) to retain the WEC Bantamweight title and become the first UFC Bantamweight Champion.

Lightweight bout:

Donald Cerrone vs. Chris Horodecki

It was clear Cerrone wanted to trade with Horodecki, but you could tell early on that he wanted to win by submission in this fight. Whenever it went to the ground he was working for anything Chris would give him, and trying to finish. He had his back at the end of round one, and if he had a dozen or more seconds he probably would have had the rear naked choke. Cerrone was landing on the feet as well, and he easily won the first round. In the second, Horodecki went in for a takedown, and basically ended up landing in an omoplata. Cerrone didn’t have all the leverage he needed to get it, but when Horodecki went to roll out of, Cerrone locked up a triangle choke. The choke was really lose, but Cerrone controlled him enough to lock it up again. This time it was locked up, and after about a minute, Horodecki was forced to submit to the triangle choke at the 2:43 mark.

Cerrone defeated Horodecki via submission (triangle choke) at 2:43 of round 2

Lightweight bout:

Bart Palaszewski vs. Kamal Shalorus

Shalorus defeated Palaszewski via split decision (30-27, 28-29, 29-28)

Lightweight bout:

Zhang Tie Quan vs. Danny Downes

Downes defeated Zhang via unanimous decision (29-28, 30-27, 29-28)

Lightweight bout:

Jamie Varner vs. Shane Roller

Roller defeated Varner via submission (rear-naked choke) at 3:55 of round 1

Bantamweight bout:

Brad Pickett vs. Ivan Menjivar