Faber Closes Out WEC Run Appropriately

The Zuffa-era WEC was definitely built around Urijah Faber. Even though he stumbled against Mike Brown and Jose Aldo later in his career as a WEC featherweight, the WEC always felt like his house. The shows- which were often in California- brought in more fans when he was fighting and the promotional videos and fanfare continued to focus on him even after he first lost to Brown.

It was appropriate, then, to see Faber impressively defeat his final WEC opponent, Takeya Mizugaki, with a first-round rear naked choke. In his first appearance as a bantamweight and his last as a WEC fighter, Faber appeared to be his old self, for all intents and purposes. He kickboxed capably and evasively, found an opening to get his opponent to the mat, then absolutely swarmed him while steadily working towards the finish.

Even Mizugaki gave a signature performance, refusing to quit even as the rear naked choke was completely sunken in. Instead, the Japanese fighter simply passed out up against the cage, which led to referee Josh Rosenthal stopping the fight once it became apparent that Mizugaki was unconscious.

For Faber, it was a great start to both his impending UFC career and his run at a bantamweight title shot. Mizugaki is a legitimate top ten opponent, and to dominate him in such a manner leaves little reservations toward what Faber has left in the tank. Faber has no shortage of potential matchups that no doubt will have UFC matchmaker Joe Silva licking his chops, including showdowns with Miguel Torres, Joseph Benavidez, Scott Jorgensen and current champ Dominick Cruz.

Elsewhere on the card, Chad Mendes took another big step in his young career by defeating Javier Vazquez by decision in their matchup. In your typical wrestler-submission specialist matchup, you knew that Mendes would work ground and pound and it would pretty much be all or nothing for Vazquez, who would likely lose a decision if he didn’t get a submission at some point.

In the end, Mendes stayed active from the top and didn’t allow Vazquez to work off of his back the way that he’d like, and he took the decision because of it. The young fighter also showed some good flashes while standing, landing a flying knee in the second round and a head kick in the third that hurt Vazquez. He showed a flair for the dramatic, too, attempting a front flip to pass Vazquez’s guard. It didn’t work out the way he had planned, but it did show a willingness to try just about anything in order to win.

Erik Koch didn’t get to face Josh Grispi, but still made a nice little statement with a highlight reel knockout of last-minute replacement opponent Francisco Rivera. Rivera was aggressive and obviously came to fight, but Koch timed a left head kick perfectly and floored his opponent. Koch tried to recover and shake the cobwebs off, but Koch followed up by easily maneuvering to side control and using hammer fists to force a referee stoppage.

With the featherweight division currently thirsting for fresh challengers to test champion Jose Aldo, you have to think that Koch could get a title opportunity in relatively short order if he continues to turn in performances like the one against Rivera.

Another short-notice replacement, Joseph Benavidez, fared much better in his fight against fellow top-ten bantamweight Wagnney Fabiano, defeating his opponent by guillotine choke in the second round of their bout. Benavidez took the fight just after a five-round loss to bantamweight champ Dominick Cruz when Fabiano’s original opponent, Brian Bowles was unable to compete.

Benavidez was the more aggressive fighter throughout, which by the second round led to Benavidez doing nearly all of the striking and really pushing the pace. Benavidez fought with a mean streak, repeatedly coming forward with focused aggression and well-mixed strikes, while Fabiano seemed as if he couldn’t find the range he was looking for, regularly moving into range, then backing out without countering when Benavidez would bring the heat.

Ultimately, ill-advised takedowns got Fabiano momentarily stuck in guillotine choke attempts that he was able to escape, but a mid-round scramble finally led to Fabiano’s demise when Benavidez finally made good on one of his guillotine choke attempts. It was an impressive submission for Benavidez, as Fabiano is a Brazilian jiu-jitsu black belt himself. After the fight, Benavidez credited his “Joe-jitsu” for the win.

In the first televised bout, Demetrious Johnson pulled off an upset against Damacio Page, who was returning to action after an extended layoff. Johnson won the fight by third-round guillotine after a very competitive fight started to swing in his favor in the last round.

In the first round, each fighter landed multiple takedowns, but neither could keep the other on his back for long. The second round was just as competitive, but by the end of the fight, Johnson (who was definitely the smaller fighter) seemed to have more energy than his opponent. He ultimately floored Page with a head kick, then moved in to secure a fight-ending guillotine choke from the mount for the big upset win.

In other action, Cub Swanson took a split decision in what may have been the best fight of the night against Mackens Semerzier. The two went at it for all three rounds, with Swanson frequently getting the better of the striking and Semerzier getting takedowns and working for submissions throughout the bout. In the end, most viewers probably gave the first two rounds to Swanson and the final one to Semerzier.

Michael McDonald (not the one who ruined the Doobie Brothers) defeated Clint Godfrey with a textbook arm bar in the first round of their fight when Godfrey got a little complacent after getting a takedown into McDonald’s guard. Meanwhile, Anthony Njokuani forced referee Steve Mazzagatti to stop his fight with Edward Faaloloto when he unleashed an elbow from the clinch that dropped his opponent just six seconds before the end of the second round.

Dustin Poirier absolutely swarmed opponent Zachary Micklewright en route to a 53-second TKO stoppage, while LC Davis dropped a dull decision to Raphael Assuncao in a disappointing performance. Also winning by decision was Yves Jabouin, who won a unanimous decision over Brandon Visher in the night’s opening bout.

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Tags: Chad Mendes, Cub Swanson, Damacio Page, Demetrious Johnson, Erik Koch, Javier Vazquez, Joseph Benavidez, Takeya Mizugaki, Urijah Faber, Wagnney Fabiano, WEC 52