WEC 40 - April 5th - Official Line-up

cowboyronnie · Post #1 » by **cowboyronnie** » Wed Mar 11, 2009 10:53 am

WEC 40: Torres vs. Mizugaki
Sunday, April 5
UIC Pavilion
Chicago

WEC Bantamweight Championship
Miguel Torres vs. Takeya Mizugaki

Jeff Curran vs. Joseph Benavidez
Benson Henderson vs. Shane Roller
Rafael Assuncao vs. Jameel Massouh
Anthony Njokuani vs. Anthony Pettis
Dominick Cruz vs. Ivan Lopez
Cub Swanson vs. Diego Nunes
Wagnney Fabiano vs. Fredson Paixao
Eddie Wineland vs. Rani Yahya
Manny Tapia vs. Akitoshi Tamura
Rafael Dias vs. Cole Province

The bolded are ones I assume will make the main card. Anything else? Though Yahya's last fight didn't even make the broadcast, IIRC.

This is a little disappointing, frankly. The opponents for Torres and Yahya are weak...or at least unknow to me.

Cammo101 · Post #2 » by **Cammo101** » Wed Mar 11, 2009 3:24 pm

Mizugaki is a top 5 Bantumweight. He is far from a weak opponent. IMO he is a more dangerous opponent than Bowles would have been.

The Curran/Benavidez fight should be really good and this card is big time deep. Rafael Assuncao is one of the best unknown fighters in the world right now. Glad he is getting a look on a big card. Tapia/Tamura should be a great fight as well.

Post #3 » by **CPT** » Wed Mar 11, 2009 11:10 pm

This card looks great to me. Possibly the best WEC event I've seen on paper. That could just be because I'm just finding out who a lot of these smaller guys are though.

According to MMA Junkie, this is the way it shakes down in terms of main card vs. prelims:

MAIN CARD (televised)

* Champ Miguel Torres vs. Takeya Mizugaki (for bantamweight title)
* Joseph Benavidez vs. Jeff Curran
* Ben Henderson vs. Shane Roller
* Rafael Assuncao vs. Jameel Massouh

PRELIMINARY CARD (un-televised)

* Anthony Njokuani vs. Anthony Pettis
* Dominick Cruz vs. Ivan Lopez
* Diego Nunes vs. Cub Swanson
* Wagnney Fabiano vs. Fredson Paixao
* Eddie Wineland vs. Rani Yahya
* Akitoshi Tamura vs. Manny Tapia
* Rafael Dias vs. Cole Province

Fabiano vs. Paixao, Wineland vs. Yahya, and Tamura vs. Tapia are all pretty big fights to not make it onto the main card.

Wineland is the former WEC BW champ. He lost the belt to Beebe, who then lost it to Torres. That was before the WEC exploded, but still, it's probably some indication that he's a pretty solid fighter.

Love the Benavidez vs. Curran fight as well.

I think Roller and Assuncao are both guys they want to give exposure to and build up, but I'd prefer to have the more competitive fights on the main broadcast, and then if one of those guys puts on an impressive performance, they can show it.

Cammo101 · Post #4 » by **Cammo101** » Thu Mar 12, 2009 1:31 am

They have to find a way to get Fabiano and Tamura/Tapia on TV.

Anyone else notice how it always seems like the WEC picks the fights they air out of a hat? Tamura and Tapia are top 10 in their weight class, why would they not be on the main card over the Roller or the Assuncao fights?

El Hardee · Post #5 » by **El Hardee** » Thu Mar 12, 2009 1:47 pm

Nice card, Curran/Bena is going to be a war. I'm not familiar with Torres' opponent but its always fun to watch the War Mullet in action. Dominic Cruz is a up and coming fighter I've been hearing alot about from my gym too bad there not showing it.

Post #6 » by **CPT** » Sun Apr 5, 2009 3:11 am

This event is happening tomorrow, so I thought I should bump this thread. I'm excited for it, and I'm really hoping to see the Fabiano, Yahya, and Tapia fights make it on the broadcast.

All fights are going ahead as scheduled, as the fighters are healthy and made weight, with the exception of Mike Budnik replacing Cole Province to fight Rafael Dias at a catchweight of 149, since Budnik couldn't make the weight (145) on short notice.

This is the final card (I decided to look up most of the guys on the card, so I'm including their ranking from Fight Matrix, just for fun...as long as they are in the top 50):

MAIN CARD (televised)

* Champ Miguel Torres (#1 BW) vs. Takeya Mizugaki (#5 BW) (for bantamweight title)
* Joseph Benavidez (#14 BW) vs. Jeff Curran (#32 FW)
* Ben Henderson vs. Shane Roller
* Rafael Assuncao (#23 FW) vs. Jameel Massouh

PRELIMINARY CARD (un-televised)

* Anthony Njokuani vs. Bart Palaszewski
* Dominick Cruz vs. Ivan Lopez
* Wagnney Fabiano (#4 FW) vs. Fredson Paixao
* Eddie Wineland (#12 BW) vs. Rani Yahya (#3 BW)
* Akitoshi Tamura (#27 FW) vs. Manny Tapia (#11 BW)
* Mike Budnik vs. Rafael Dias

cowboyronnie · Post #7 » by **cowboyronnie** » Sun Apr 5, 2009 3:37 am

WEC prelims...do they ever make it to a broadcast anymore? There used to be that Versus show.

Susan · Post #8 » by **Susan** » Mon Apr 6, 2009 3:07 am

WAR TORRES.

El Hardee · Post #9 » by **El Hardee** » Mon Apr 6, 2009 3:55 am

If you listen to Mir, Torres invented BJJ, MT, Boxing, Wrestling and taught Bruce Lee to fight. All biased commentating aside it was a great fight, Torres is a complete tornado, the dudes cardio and creativity in strikes might be the best in MMA. 4th best p4p in the world, behind 1-Fedor,2-Silva,3-GSP.

Cammo101 · Post #10 » by **Cammo101** » Mon Apr 6, 2009 4:13 am

I think you could make a pretty good case for Torres as the #3 P4P guy, but I have him at #4. He was tested tonight and it was nice to see. This guy is truely the total package. He never flusters or slows down, he has crisp strikes with KO power and is a legit BJJ black belt. Torres knew full well he could win this fight easier on the ground but only ever even tried to go to the ground after the cut. Bowles has big time power, which is good, because a flash KO is the only way anyone at 135 is going to beat Torres.

I want to see Torres move up to 145 and fight the Faber/Brown winner. That would be a PPV worthy main event.

Benevidez/Curran was a war too, and I think Benevidez is well on his way to a title shot.

Post #11 » by **CPT** » Mon Apr 6, 2009 1:18 pm

Great event.

Benavidez vs. Curran was a good fight, and the main event was a war. I'm not sure which rounds the judges gave Mizugaki, but I'm glad the scorecards broke down the way they did. It was the kind of thing where every round was pretty close, so I like to see the final score reflect that, instead of being 50-45 Torres, because that wouldn't have told the real story. I hope Mizugaki sticks around. I'm not sure if he's signed with the WEC, or if they just threw some money at the highest ranked guy they could get on short notice (obviously if he won he would have had to stick around).

cowboyronnie · Post #12 » by **cowboyronnie** » Tue Apr 7, 2009 5:00 am

El Hardee wrote:If you listen to Mir, Torres invented BJJ, MT, Boxing, Wrestling and taught Bruce Lee to fight.

His versatility is insane. The elbows he was getting off, and in combination at that, from the clinch were awesome, for example.

El Hardee · Post #13 » by **El Hardee** » Wed Apr 15, 2009 5:41 pm

cowboyronnie wrote:
El Hardee wrote:If you listen to Mir, Torres invented BJJ, MT, Boxing, Wrestling and taught Bruce Lee to fight.

His versatility is insane. The elbows he was getting off, and in combination at that, from the clinch were awesome, for example.

I watched the replay of the Torres fight last night and it wasnt as close as I thought, Torres took a few but seriously put it on that boy. I agree CBR, Torres was doing damage with every part of his body from every positon in the clinch, his jab was hitting at will. I gotta say him and Silva are the 2 best all around strikers in the game.