WEC 48: A fan's perspective

Promoted to the Front Page by Zak Woods.

The WEC came to northern California for their first PPV event with a stacked card and I was there for my first live MMA event. I arrived in time for the first prelim match and even then the atmosphere was building inside what would be a packed ARCO arena.

After the jump I'll go through my thoughts on the fights, share some photos, and talk about the kind of fan that shouts "stand them up ref, they are being gay!"

Even though the UFC was promoting this fight and putting all their people and muscle behind it, the ticket prices were still at WEC levels.  As a result I managed to get great seats just six rows up in the lower section and next to the fighter entrance for $180 instead of $650+ for a UFC event.

Being my first time at an event I was surprised at just how annoying the cameramen are.  You don't really get a sense of their location are when watching at home, they are right in the middle of that section of the cage standing on a big stool.  Why they don't put them on the corners is beyond me.

On to the fights...

Tyler Toner and Brandon Visher opened the show and what an opening it was.  Toner connected with a great head kick and followed it up with a hard shot right to the jaw and Visher went down like a ton of bricks.  It was a great combo and delivered perfectly.

There is not a whole lot to say about the  Mizugaki/Yahya, except Mizugaki managed to get the win. See kids, leg humping doesn't always win you fight. 

Chad Mendes managed to sink in a sick guillotine choke on Anthony Morrison to get the win.  It was a good fight and got the large number of Mendes supporters in the crowd going.

The last fight on the non-televised card was Brad Pickett vs Demetrious Johnson, Pickett had a surprising amount of support considering he is British.  This turned out to be a real war, both fights landed some hard shots and there were some viscous slams.

Even though this fight was very entertaining, not all the fans agreed.  It was at this point I realized that one great advantage to watching at home is not having to hear the drunk middle-aged guy with a gut behind you shouting for the ref to stand them up every time it hit the ground.  The funny part was when Pickett managed to pass to full mount with about 15 seconds left in the round, the same guys then shouted "ohh hell yeah, it's over now!!  He's got the mount, it's DONE!!"  And no, Pickett didn't land a single effective strike in the mount.  The irony is, the early 20's guy sitting next to me a TapOut t-shirt who fits the MMA stereotype was polite, soft spoken, educated in the sport, and offered to buy a beer to make up for asking to get past a few times.

The next two fights were televised live on SPIKE, I hope you all enjoyed them as much as I did!

I had a good feeling that Pettis and  Karalexis were going to put on a good fight and it didn't disappoint.  The triangle choke Pettis caught him in was fantastic, you could see Karalexis's struggle intensify as the choke sunk in and the blood was being cut off.  Those who haven't felt a triangle before, it's mainly a blood choke, not one that blocks your airways so at first you feel okay but quickly that changes and you can feel the thumping in your head and things go hazy. It's fun, go to your local BJJ gym and give it a try!

Forget George A. Romero, I love Korean Zombies now!

The internet will be buzzing about this fight and for good reason!  When have you seen an undercard fight get the crowd on their feet over and over?  WTF, Holy S**T doesn't even begin to cover how rawesome this fight fight was to watch live.  I actually thought Jung was the clear winner in that fight, he rocked him multiple times and was clearly the aggressor.  In the promo clips Garcia said how opponents talk about trading shots with him and when he touches them they shoot for take downs...not this time.  Garcia was the one running from Jung, and I loved how the zombie stopped his relentless pursuit just long enough to put his hands on his hips and mock Garcia.  TKO win by humiliation.

The Scott Jorgensen vs Antonio Banuelos fight opened the PPV portion of the card.

 It's not that it was a bad fight by any means (I'd take that over any Jake Shields fight any day of the week) but after the previous two fights it was very unsatisfying.  Jorgensen picked up the win but I felt he could have done more to finish the fight.  I know, easy for me to say sitting in my seat taking photos and not in the cage with a guy beating me up.

For the Roller/ Njokuani fight I think I hit that wall where you are too anxious to see the main fights you lose interest in the one going on.  It was a decent fight and Roller did a good job to stick with it and finally sink in the rear naked.

Years ago I was drunk and watched the movie Event Horizon with some friends and it totally scared us and were were like "Wow, that is amazing!" Then a few years later I saw it again and thought "Wow, that was the worst movie ever."  Mike Brown = Event Horizon last night.

And now for the co-main event.  Ben Henderson was looking ripped!

Watching the two of them in the cage before the fight I was thinking Cerrone was going to get his head taken off if he wasn't careful.  That wasn't what technically finished the fight but holy crap Ben Henderson is the real deal.  Time for him to join the UFC and see what he's made of.

There was a short break and then the ARCO Arena blew up.  

The atmosphere was electric and lots of people were wearing their "No Way Jose" t-shirts.  When Bruce Buffer was announcing Urijah it got so loud you could not hear a single word he was saying.

Unfortunately for Urijah and the sold out crowd, what followed was a whole lot of this:

Going into it despite how much I wanted Faber to win I knew Aldo would.  Faber's leg was so hurt, even after the first round I knew it was impossible for him.  He showed such amazing heart and determination to keep going.  A few times he got kicked and fell against the fence and it looked like he was done but he just kept bouncing back.  I think Aldo could have destroyed him but something held him back, maybe he saw a great former champ who would not quit and let him try to put on a show for his home town.

I bolted with 15 seconds left in the fifth and beat the rush to the parking lot, a great way to end an amazing night of fights!