The Fightin’ Stance News 11.07.08: Change Is Good

Posted by Adam Tool on 11.07.2008

The Fightin’ Stance News returns with all the fallout from a wild WEC 36! We’ve got thoughts on the show as well as the latest on all the fighters from the event! Also in this week’s column get the latest news on a UFC lightweight running into the law, what’s in store for EliteXC’s fighters, as well as the updated MMA Calendar!



Hello, happy Friday, and welcome back to The Fightin' Stance News. My name is Adam Tool and there has been quite a lot of change in my life in the last week. I have a newborn baby boy, who was born on Halloween, and he's amazing. We also have a new President-elect and I couldn't be happier about that (especially since it means I shouldn't have to see Sarah Palin ever again).

Enough current events, let's do the news. Just so you know: newborn baby+slow news week=extra short column.



You Can‘t WEC Me

On Wednesday night we were treated to another fine night of free MMA courtesy of the WEC. In case you missed it, BOSS Csonka has the live report. This show was originally scheduled for September 10th, but the threat of Hurricane Ike made it impossible to hold the event in Hollywood, FL on its original date. The card went down as one of the most memorable events the WEC has ever held, for a number of reasons.

We'll start with the main event, and the man everyone figured was damn near unbeatable in the featherweight division. Urijah Faber has been talked up quite a bit over the years, but he's always had the skills to back it up in the cage. On Wednesday night the champ made a critical error, and fortunately for Mike Brown, he was there to capitalize on it.





Did Faber overlook his opponent? By all accounts Brown is certainly a tough dude, and you can see just how well he timed that right hand that put Urijah down on the mat. It's possible that Faber was over-confident heading into the fight and that led to him committing on an elbow strike that Brown saw coming a mile away. Brown pounced on Faber and before long we had a new champion crowned in the featherweight ranks.

If you're wondering where "The California Kid" goes from here, there are certainly some options available. There's a possible drop to 135 and big-time encounter with current bantamweight champ Miguel Torres. It's also a possibility that Faber will move up to 155 and head for the UFC, where he'd be a welcome addition to a very competitive lightweight division. The most likely option, and the one Faber hinted at after the fight, is that he'll get to work on climbing back up the ladder. For as long as he's been in the spotlight Urijah has been defined by the WEC featherweight belt over his shoulder, and now that it's gone I'm sure he'd like nothing more than to try and win it back.

As for the new featherweight champion, he'll be needing some time off before anything else. If you noticed Brown being helped out of the cage after the fight, it's because he suffered a torn cartilage in his ribs. Brown was taken to a hospital immediately following the bout and will be out of action for 4-6 weeks. Once he's healed up and ready, he'll look to defend his title for the first time. His opponent in that defense will likely be the next man we're going to talk about…

Leonard Garcia has had a rough year, no doubt about that. He was arrested, and then acquitted, on charges involved with a cocaine bust earlier this year. Now that his innocence has been assured, Garcia looks to recapture the momentum he gained when he made his featherweight debut with a TKO win over Hiroyuki Takaya at WEC 32.

Wednesday night Garcia made his return to active competition against a very tough opponent in Jens Pulver. Pulver is a former UFC lightweight champion (who holds a win over current champ BJ Penn) and has only been beaten once before as a featherweight. However Pulver couldn't have known that Garcia had a secret weapon:



Yes, the power of the nipple tweak is proven once again! For those that don't know, the running gag around Greg Jackson's camp is that if you tweak your nipples before a fight, it's supposed to bring good luck. Georges St. Pierre did it before his win over Jon Fitch, Rashad Evans did it before his victory over Chuck Liddell, and Keith Jardine did it before getting the win against Brandon Vera. With the mighty nipple tweak on his side, it was only a matter of time before Garcia pulled off the victory.



By dominating a respected opponent like Pulver, Garcia jumps to the front of the pack of featherweight contenders. He made his intentions clear in an interview after the fight, saying that he wanted a title shot.

"For sure. Mike's a great champion, man. He's holding on to that belt real tight right now; he's probably loving life. The fact of the matter is, just like Urijah, anything can happen at any moment. I think right now is my time, I'm at my peak, and I'm ready to perform, so I say Mike, let's get it on."

After their upset performances on Wednesday, matching up Brown and Garcia seems very natural. Both guys are exciting fighters and I for one would love to see this fight made as Brown's first title defense. The question is, will it be his only title defense?

Speaking of title defenses, that's exactly what we didn't get when Paulo Filho and Chael Sonnen finally had their rematch from last December. Filho tipped the scales at 4 pounds over the middleweight limit, and as a result the fight was turned into a non-title affair. If that wasn't bad enough, Filho then proceeded to put on the absolute worst performance of his life Wednesday night.

Where's the guy that racked up so many impressive victories in PRIDE? He certainly didn't come to the Seminole Hard Rock & Casino this week. Filho looked sluggish and bored from the moment he stepped into the cage, and he offered little offense against a somewhat confused Sonnen. Their fight was the lone low point of the evening, and now we're left wondering what each man should do next now that the WEC is eliminating their middleweight division.

It should be a foregone conclusion that Sonnen will have a place in the UFC. I'm not sure how well he'll fare against some of the better middleweights in the octagon, and I certainly wouldn't give him much of a chance against Anderson Silva. There's talk that the UFC could continue the grudge-match storyline (since Silva and Filho are good friends), but that's just wishful thinking until Sonnen can get a few impressive wins under his belt.

As for Filho, who knows? This is not the first time he's struggled with the middleweight limit. He also doesn't have much of a future in the UFC middleweight ranks, since he's made it clear several times that he will not fight his friend Anderson Silva. So what then? Does he go up to 205? With his size and somewhat limited skillset I have to believe that he would get creamed by most of the guys in the UFC's stacked light heavyweight division. There is one other option, and I think it makes the most sense.

It's time for Paulo Filho to retire.

He had a great run in Japan but since coming to the states Filho has appeared to have lost his killer instinct. There's also the matter of his chemical dependency that caused him to go to rehab earlier this year. I obviously don't know the man well enough to make any sort of judgment relating to that, but it's not too far-fetched to think that his personal problems stem from his professional career.

Filho is a world-class practitioner of Brazilian jiu-jitsu. He can open up his own school and teach the future stars of this sport quite a lot. The thrill of competition is clearly gone and unless he finds a way to get it back I see no reason for him to join the UFC.

We had another bout in the soon-to-be-deceased WEC middleweight ranks as two undefeated fighters made their WEC debuts. Jake Rosholt may be one of the butt-ugliest fighters I've ever seen, but the man certainly has the skills to go far in his career. Nissen Osterneck looked impressive too, showing some great striking and attempting several submissions. In the end Rosholt got the hard-fought victory and now has all but assured himself a spot in the octagon. I wouldn't be surprised to see Osterneck get his chance in the UFC as well

We were treated to one fight from the evening's preliminary card, and once the on-screen graphic came up for Aaron Simpson vs. David Avellan I had a feeling we were in for a quick finish. That's exactly what we got as Simpson delivered a brutal knockout to finish the fight in less than 20 seconds.



Now let's quickly wrap up the rest of the news from WEC 36:

-Following his unanimous decision win over Rob McCullough on the undercard, Donald Cerrone moves into the #1 contender's spot for the WEC lightweight championship. We can look forward to Cerrone challenging Jamie Varner sometime next year. Early reports indicate that the fight could be a part of WEC 38, which is tentatively scheduled for January 25th.

-Much like the UFC, the WEC awarded bonuses for several performances on Wednesday's show. "Fight Of The Night" honors went to Cerrone and McCullough in what is being described by some as a "Fight Of The Year" candidate. Mike Brown won the WEC featherweight championship as well as "Knockout Of The Night" for his victory over Urijah Faber. Finally, in the bantamweight division Rani Yahya got "Submission Of The Night" for his third round guillotine choke of Yoshiro Maeda. All bonuses were in the amount of $7500. While he didn't get one of the above honors, Leonard Garcia was also awarded a $7500 bonus for his upset win over Jens Pulver.

-WEC 36 was a financial success, as the event drew 5,227 fans for a live gate of $563,578. The event was described as "just shy of a sellout." although the live attendance pales in comparison to the 12,682 fans that attended WEC 34 in Sacramento earlier this year.

Some Guys Just Can‘t Catch A Break



Former UFC lightweight contender Hermes Franca was arrested Thursday morning in Jupiter, FL and charged with DUI. Franca was taken into custody by the Palm Beach County Sheriff's Office at 2:38 am, and was released later that morning under his own recognizance. No other details of the arrest are available at this time.

The last year and half has been rough for Franca. He got a shot at the UFC lightweight championship against Sean Sherk at UFC 73, but came up short. Following that fight he tested positive for Drostanolone, and as a result he was suspended for one year by the California State Athletic Commission and released from his UFC contract. He was reinstated earlier this year but suffered another defeat at the hands of Frank Edgar.

With his arrest I imagine it's likely we'll not be seeing Franca inside the octagon again. He's already been given one second chance by Dana White, and the UFC President isn't likely to offer up another. It's a shame because at one point Franca looked like he could reside in the upper-levels of the lightweight division. I may be getting ahead of myself though, as the UFC has yet to offer any kind of official statement on the matter. Look for more on this story as the details emerge.

Bring Out Your Dead



They just won't go down. Earlier this week ProElite (parent company of EliteXC) informed their fighters and managers that the company still intended to promote events in 2009, and that they had simply scaled down their staff. This contradicts the report made by the organization a few weeks ago that they had closed their doors and ceased fight operations.

Now it appears that the final nail is ready to be driven into the EliteXC coffin, as Showtime Networks and parent company CBS Corporation (who have a 20 percent stake in ProElite) filed paperwork with the Securities and Exchange Commission on Tuesday to announce a public auction on November 17th. This auction will be held to liquidate the remaining assets of ProElite, Inc. and will be open to the public (you might even see advertisements for it on your favorite MMA websites). According to the filing,

"Showtime gave the Issuer a notice pursuant to the Security Agreement, as amended, that it intends to sell all of the Issuer's personal property, whether tangible or intangible, to the highest bidder at a public sale. Showtime reserves its rights under the Security Agreement, as amended, and applicable law to adjourn or cancel the sale and thereafter dispose of such property in a public or private sale or in any other manner provided by applicable law."

The auction will include the sales of fighter contracts including Kimbo Slice, Jake Shields, Gina Carano, Robbie Lawler, Nick Diaz, Frank Shamrock, and more. No details were available as to what other assets might be put up.

This filing officially puts to rest any chance of EliteXC returning. Showtime and CBS have paid the bills for the last few EliteXC shows, so they're well within their right to hold this auction in order to make some of their money back. Personally I can't wait for this whole thing to be over so the fighters can get back to work and (potentially) move on to bigger and better things.



-A welterweight clash between Marcus Davis and Chris Lytle is in the works for UFC 93. Both fighters requested the bout following their wins at UFC 89, with Davis in particular pleading to be included on the Dublin, Ireland event.

-Speaking of UFC 93, the show has completely sold out all 10,000 tickets in just two weeks. This is the first UFC event to be held in Ireland (note: UFC 72 took place in Northern Ireland, which is a separate nation from the Republic of Ireland) and the card will be headlined by Rich Franklin vs. Dan Henderson.

-With only a few weeks until the show, Matt Riddle has been forced to pull out of his UFC 91 bout with Ryan Thomas. Taking Riddle's place will be fellow "TUF" 7 alum Matt Brown.

-Earlier this week American Top Team revealed that former PRIDE and DREAM middleweight Denis Kang has signed a four-fight deal with the UFC. Kang is coming off a 48 second TKO win over Marvin Eastman at Canada's Raw Combat on October 25th.

-Even though they recently announced a partnership, it now appears that Affliction and Golden Boy Promotions will be running events head-to-head. Golden Boy is close to finalizing a January 24th event for HBO to be headlined by Antonio Margarito and Shane Mosley. This is the same date as Affliction's "Day Of Reckoning" event on PPV.



11/15 - UFC 91: Couture vs. Lesnar
Live on PPV at 10 pm ET

11/21 - Strikeforce: Destruction
Live on HDNet at 10 pm ET

12/3 - WEC 37: Torres vs. Tapia
Live on Versus at 11 pm ET

12/10 - UFC Fights For The Troops
On Spike (time TBA)

12/11 - Adrenaline MMA II
Live on HDNet (time TBA)

12/13 - The Ultimate Fighter Finale
Live on Spike (time TBA)

12/27 - UFC 92: The Ultimate 2008
Live on PPV at 10 pm ET

1/17/09 - UFC 93: Dublin
Live on PPV (time TBA)

1/24/09 - Affliction: Day Of Reckoning
Live on PPV at 9 pm ET

1/25/09 - WEC 38: Varner vs. Cerrone
Live on Versus (time TBA)

1/31/09 - UFC 94: St. Pierre vs. Penn II
Live on PPV at 10 pm ET

I'm afraid that's all I've got time for this week. Come back in seven days when I'll have a full preview of UFC 91: Couture vs. Lesnar. I can't wait for that one. Until then…


Sources: MMAJunkie.com, Sherdog.com, Fiveouncesofpain.com, MMAWeekly.com