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RICH HANSEN, MMATORCH COLUMNIST
Well, if Anthony Pettis wins on Thursday night, then that will be my favorite WEC fight.� If not, my favorite WEC fight was Miguel Torres vs. Yoshiro Maeda at WEC 34.
I will miss most having the ability to see featherweights and bantamweights on a regular basis.� Look at the next two UFC cards.� Top 10 fighters Josh Grispi (who is the #1 contender for the farcical UFC Featherweight Championship), Mike Brown (former WEC Featherweight Champion and current top five featherweight), and Rani Yahya (current top 10 Bantamweight) have all been relegated to unaired prelim fights.� Three fights that we would have been able to see on Versus, we will not be able to see live anywhere.��
I would rather see Grispi-Poirier and Brown-Nunes instead of Vera-Silva at UFC 125.� But now that the WEC is gone, any fight that wouldn't have main evented a WEC event is now at risk of going unseen.� As a result, other than the champions of the 135 and 145 lb. divisions, no one is going to know any of the fighters, which means lower buy rates when a card is headlined by a 135 or 145 lb. title fight, which means more talk of Armageddon from the alarmists (and yes I realize I am calling out alarmists while being one myself).
I do understand that had the WEC not merged with the UFC that established Japanese talent like Kid and Omigawa may not have come to the WEC because of the lower pay scale that the WEC had in place.� But so far, color me highly unimpressed with this merger.
ANWAR PEREZ, MMATORCH COLUMNIST
I would say that my favorite fight(s) from the WEC was the first fight between Urijah Faber and Mike Brown, as most people just assumed that Faber would run over Brown, but instead, humbled Faber as he felt defeat for the first time in the WEC cage. Another fight, not that it's a favorite, but more memorable than anything, was the second fight between Paulo Filho and Chael Sonnen. Filho talking to nobody that was near him, or even near his corner, and dropping to guard at awkward moments in the fight was odd to say the least. �Seeing it happen, as opposed to seeing it as highlights made it even more surreal. �I'll miss that even though the WEC is owned by Zuffa, it made it seem that you were watching something different from the UFC. �It was on cable, on another network, and featured fighters that were relative unknowns to the Chuck Liddell and Brock Lesnar fans of the world, but made it an intriguing niche among the sport. �I, for one, am excited to see what those same fighters that helped bring the WEC up can do for the UFC when the new year begins.
FRANK HYDEN, MMATORCH CONTRIBUTOR
I'll miss being able to see so many great fights for free, that's what I'll miss about WEC on Versus. There are so many great fights to choose from it's hard to narrow it down to just a couple. I remember Urijah Faber vs. Jens Pulver, Leonard Garcia vs. Chan Sung Jung, Mike Brown vs. Uriah Faber, I could go on and on and on. I guess I'll just go with the Garcia vs. Sung Jung fight, but there's so many great ones to choose from.
ERIC HOBAUGH, MMATORCH SPECIALIST
Leonard Garcia vs. Chan Sung Jung was my favorite fight from the WEC.� If you have not seen this fight you need to.� It is not only my favorite fight from the WEC, it is also my favorite fight in MMA this year.� I think Jung won the fight, and when the judges awarded Garcia the victory, It was disappointing.� But it took nothing away from how awesome this fight was.�
I will miss that they were not the UFC.� I love MMA and the UFC, but our sport needs Strikforce and all of the other little shows!� A monopoly is not good for fans or the fighters. The WEC were usually better with each show. I liked Frank Mir as a broadcaster.� He was knowledgeable and I liked that he called the fights as he saw them. I understand the move by the UFC and the merger, but I liked having another MMA show to watch. I also liked that the fights were usually not on Saturday nights.�
SAM MATTHEW, MMATORCH COLUMNIST
Favorite fight from the WEC? Every Miguel Torres, Leonard Garcia and Jose Aldo fight. But seriously if I have to pick one, it's Leonard Garcia vs. Chan Sung Jung, probably just because it's fresh in recent memory
ALEX WILLIAMS, MMATORCH CONTRIBUTOR
My favorite WEC fight on this week's card is Dominick Cruz vs. Scott Jorgensen.� My favorite WEC fight ever, because of the build-up, was the grudge rematch between Donald Cerrone and Jamie Varner.� I'll miss seeing so many of the top fighters in the world (Jose Aldo, Urijah Faber, Dominick Cruz, etc.) competing on free TV.
MIKE BACIOR, MMATORCH CONTRIBUTOR
Literally almost every fight. I love everything about the promotion. I will miss it, but hope the same excitement transfers to the UFC.
JASON AMADI, MMATORCH COLUMNIST
I would absolutely love to pick an older fight to show off the depth of my WEC knowledge, but I?d be lying if I said that the organization has ever held a better fight than Ben Henderson vs. Donald Cerrone. Henderson vs. Cerrone was an epic clash of styles, and because of the the interim title in play, the two actually had five rounds to work. While there are many great scraps to be found in the WEC library, Henderson vs. Cerrone is simply in a class of its own.
JAMIE PENICK, MMATORCH EDITOR-IN-CHIEF
The first bout between Ben Henderson and Donald Cerrone was simply one of the most exciting fights you'll see in this sport, and tops the list for me. There was just a ton of drama throughout the bout, with Henderson surprising most by getting the upper hand early in the bout, only to escape submission attempt after attempt after attempt from Cerrone in the championship rounds to pull off the victory. Notables that are right up there are Cerrone vs. Razor Rob McCullough from 2008, Urijah Faber vs. Jens Pulver I, Faber vs. Mike Brown II and one of my favorites from this year, Mark Hominick vs. Yves Jabouin.
As for what I'll miss the most, it's the consistently exciting free events on Versus. Rich Hansen has some very valid concerns about the status of a lot of these guys that have been Versus mainstays getting stuck on unaired prelims, and I'm holding out hope it's something that will be corrected as the year rolls on next year. But the fact that the WEC gave so many unheralded young fighters a chance to make a name for themselves on national TV will be missed.
Source: http://www.mmatorch.com/artman2/publish/roundtables/article_7861.shtml
Travis Wiuff Wu Haotian Rani Yahya Kenichi Yamamoto Norifumi Kid Yamamoto
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