MMA Worldwide

Wec 43 Recap

Posted by Marcos Villegas on the 13 October 2009 | No Comments

San Antonio- Man, this is why you can never count on odds makers and these so-called expert fight analysts you see all over the internet. What fans witnessed on the Versus telecast this past Saturday night was something both myself and no one else thought we would be in store for. They had Ben Henderson as the overwhelmingly underdog going into his fight with Donald Cerrone for the Interim lightweight WEC belt. It’s a shame that gift of a fight from the MMA fight gods could of happened earlier as Henderson was out due to an injury. It was well worth the wait though. The contest between the two lightweights was a brutal battle of fortitude, as both left everything in the cage. The first round was a back and forth one as a resilient Henderson managed to fight off multiple submission attempts from Cerrone. This gave Henderson the advantage as he was able to score standing in Cerrone’s guard and pretty much gave him that first round. Henderson pushed the pace and pressure in the second and third rounds as his takedown game scored him more points as he was able to easily take Cerrone down. Once there Henderson was able to score from the standing guard position and landed some heavy leather. It seemed that Cerrone was starting to worry about being taken down, as his offense was almost non-existent in these two tough rounds. Like in all good epic fights, the 4^th round provided the counter drama. Cerrone seemed to turn on the after burners as he secured a tight D’arce choke and held onto it for a whopping two minutes. The crowd went crazy as Henderson somehow found the strength from within to calmly get out of the hold. With both fighters now standing you could see that Henderson was finally starting to get fatigued. The result of which the fighter was tagged by a big right before the close of the bell. The final round saw Cerrone, knowing he was behind in the scorecards, step up his game. He was the more offensively active fighter, landing an early left that knocked his opponent to the ground and working submissions from his back. An arm bar attempt almost called an end to the fight as somehow, someway Henderson was able to escape. Though Henderson lost the last two rounds, his initial onslaught was enough to put him over in the judges score cards. The upset win now set up a match up between Henderson and Jamie Varner, who has been sidelined with a broken hand.

Dave Jensen made a successful WEC debut as he earned a unanimous decision at the end of his three round fight with Rich Crunkilton. Crunkilton may have been a little ring-rusted since he had not fought in 18 months. Jensen’s wrestling game scored him points in all rounds as he was able to take down Crunkilton and controlled him scoring shots to the body and head. A big hand from Crunkilton staggered Jensen at the end of the first that would be the best shot of the night for the American Kickboxing Academy fighter. Though Crunkilton was able to get a tired Jensen in an arm-triangle, the fighter patiently defended it. Jensen was too much in rounds one and two, as the judges gave the final round to Crunkilton but gave the overall win to Jensen who stays intact with a perfect record of 13-0 in his mma career.

In featherweight action Raphael Assuncao solidified his ranking as one of the top featherweight prospects in the WEC. He took home the spilt decision victory over Yves Jabouin in an entertaining three rounder. Jabouin showed excellent stand up, but his counter part was just a bit better. Assuncao stood his ground and executed an excellent game plan that saw him control the pace of the action. Assuncao was able to steal away the fight with crucial submission attempts in both rounds two and three. The first of which was a guillotine that was locked in near the end of the second round. The submission was set up by a single-leg takedown attempt on Assuncao’s part that saw him lock the submission attempt standing and then take it to the ground. In round three Assuncao was able to take Jabouin’s back and attempted to execute a rear naked choke. His opponent was able to roll away from the attempt and eventually the two fighters were stood back up. Jabouin lands a slick spinning back kick that hurt his opponent and tries to steal the round away with a spinning back fist that lands. It was too little too late as two of the three judges gave the decision to Assuncao. Assuncao is now 2-0 in the WEC cage and the list of potential featherweights he may face seems to be narrowing down to a potential mega fight with Urijah Faber.

The WEC televised card started off with an exciting finish in the Bantamweight division as Damacio Page needed only 62 seconds to dispose of Will Campuzano via rear naked choke in the first round. The fight started with Page rushing in guns a blazing.  A Page right hand is able to land on Campuzano who answered back with a flying knee of his own. The two then get into a flurry that has the crowd cheering. It wasn’t long until Page realized a sustained slugfest wouldn’t be the smartest thing to do as he took down his opponent with ease. Campuzano is able to get a triangle choke in as soon as he is taken down but Page squirms out and is able to secure the back. He slipped in a choke that was defended but stays persistent and is able to finally finish with a second rear naked attempt. The fight is stopped via submission and Page is declared the winner.

In the untelevised undercard:

Anthony Njokuani def. Muhsin Corbbrey via TKO in R2 (1:42)

Scott Jorgensen def. Noah Thomas via TKO in R1 (3:13)

Mackens Semerzier def. Wagnney Fabiano via triangle choke in R1 (2:14)

Eddie Wineland def. Manny Tapia via unanimous decision (30-27, 30-27, 30-27)

Charlie Valencia def. Coty Wheeler via unanimous decision (30-27, 29-28, 29-28)

Deividas Taurosevicius def. Javier Vazquez via split decision (29-28, 28-29, 29-28)