WEC 46: The Quest for Viability
Published by Jim Genia on January 11th, 2010 in Current Events

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There may have been a title on the line, a lightweight strap contested between two of the organization’s best 155 pounders, but really all eyes were on erstwhile ex-featherweight champ Urijah Faber, who was making his return to the cage after a six month hiatus brought about by two broken hands and a definitive loss to Mike Brown. At WEC 46 at the Arco Arena in Sacramento, California, Jamie Varner found himself caught in the clutches of a Ben Henderson guillotine choke and was forced to tap out, and the man who took Faber’s belt, Brown, rebounded from his crushing defeat at the hands of 145-pound king Jose Aldo at WEC 44 to nail a choke of his own. But if the night was about anything, it was about hometown hero Faber, a fighter on a quest for championship viability, both of the superbout and pay-per-view variety.

It is, of course, no secret that pay-per-view is where the true money lies, and though the WEC has called the Versus channel home for some time now, talk of a business model that doesn’t rely on gate sales and broadcast rights fees has been tossed around seemingly forever. Yet the question has always been: who would headline the endeavor? Who among the top “little fighters” that the WEC specializes in would fans spend money to watch? As the promotion’s unabashed poster boy, “The California Kid” has almost consistently remained one half of the answer to that question – that is, until he lost his belt to Brown at WEC 36 and lost to Brown again at WEC 41. Three strikes may make you out in baseball, but two strikes in MMA is enough for fans and company executives alike to realize that Faber meeting Brown again would be pointless. But Muay Thai and jiu-jitsu master Jose Aldo’s addition to the equation breathed new life into those pay-per-view talks with his complete and utter destruction of Brown (actually, with his complete and utter destruction of everyone he’s faced). Going into WEC 46, facing highly-ranked Brazilian fighter Raphael Assuncao, the onus was then on Faber to make his potential role in a Faber/Aldo pairing viable.

It took him nearly three rounds to do it.

Wiser and less flamboyant with his risk taking, Faber engaged his opponent with his characteristic speed, throwing a panoply of strikes from every angle while Assuncao fired back with punches and tied former champ up against the cage. Round 1 was close, and although Faber managed to get Assuncao down in Round 2 and sink a tight guillotine, the Brazilian was quick to escape and remain a threat. It was the final frame, though, that proved to be the decisive one. With a lightning-fast scramble when Assuncao was rising to his feet, Faber took his opponent’s back, and in flash was securing the choke, the subsequent tap out over Assuncao – a quality foe – rendering Faber’s impending match-up with Aldo both a must-see superbout and a pairing worthy of pay-per-view. Faber’s quest for viability was successful.

It’s hard to accept the WEC’s lightweight division as anything more than second best with the UFC around, but it’s not hard to accept that Henderson has got skills – namely, submission skills, which he used to turn the tide of an arduous boxing match that Varner had the edge in. Halfway into Round 3 Varner ducked his head and shot, and that was all it took. One arm-in guillotine later and there was a tap out, and Henderson was champ.

Kamal Shalorus, an Iranian-born wrestler with raw power in his punches, proved to be too much for Team Quest rep Dave Jensen. Jensen may have wrestled in college, and may have possessed sharper hands, but he had nothing for Shalorus, who time and again rocked him with overhand rights and crosses and shucked off each takedown attempt with ease. Shalorus took the decision, and when time ran out, there was no debating whether he had earned it.

Brown got back on the winning track with a dominant performance over newcomer Anthony Morrison. Sporting a boxing and wrestling background and experience against some of the best in the business, Morrison is cut from a similar cloth as the American Top Team fighter. But Brown is the world’s number two-ranked featherweight for a reason, and in under two minutes he had Morrison down and tapping to a choke.

Deividas Taurosevicius is so tough and dangerous, opponents get injured just trying to pronounce his name. Mackens Semerzier – who pulled off a stunner when he triangled jiu-jitsu master Wagnney Fabiano at WEC 43 – did manage to avoid injury in that regard, but he had nothing when it came to Taurosevicius’ throws, and when time ran out it was two rounds of the former Lithuanian rugby player ground and pounding to one round of Semerzier returning the favor. The unanimous decision went to Taurosevicius.