After a demoralizing loss at the hands of devastating Brazilian Jose Aldo at WEC 44, Mike Brown took a big step back towards his former title as WEC featherweight champion with a first round submission victory over WEC-newcomer Anthony Morrision Sunday night.
Brown traded on the feet with Morrision in the early going, but found little success until he decided to bring the fight to the canvas, where Brown put Morrison through a grappling and ground and pound clinic.
The American Top Teamer was able to utilize his heavy hands and superior ground game to work towards “Cheesesteak’s” back. After the fight had aged just six seconds short of two minutes, Brown stood victorious by way of rear naked choke.
However, Brown was not the only former-WEC featherweight champion looking to make a glorious return to the blue octagon, as long-time champion Urijah Faber took on submission ace Raphael Assuncao in a bout loaded with title implications.
After taking a fairly significant time away from the octagon due to injuries sustained against Mike Brown in their championship rematch at WEC 41, Faber was welcomed back with the ecstatic Sacramento crowd who were glad to have their boy back.
The first round was a very close one, as neither fighter were able to display a clear advantage, but the second round was much easier to score. Faber was able to drop Assuncao with a heavy right hand and worked very well on the ground against the world class grappler, managing to utilize effective ground and pound and nearly locking on a guillotine choke to end the fight.
The third round was more of the same when Faber managed to dominate Assuncao in the stand up and on the ground. The end was drawing near for Assuncao when Faber knocked him down for a second time during the fight, and went in for the kill. Faber was able to secure the back and locked in a rear naked choke, as the Sacramento fans screamed in approval, welcoming the return of “The California Kid”.
The final fighter who was looking to make a big return Sun. night was Jamie Varner, who found himself opposite WEC lightweight interim champion Benson Henderson in a bout to determine the true lightweight champion.
Varner put on the pressure early, but was unable to finish the fight after Henderson managed to avoid a guillotine submission. However, “C-4″ did enough to take the first round.
Varner continued to push the pace in the second round and the third round, but the fight remained very even. The Sacramento fans grew restless with the lack of action, as Varner looked to box, and Henderson looked to avoid a boxing match and utilize his superior grappling.
However, Henderson managed to turn the boos to cheers with an out-of-the-blue submission attempt that left Varner with no other option than to tap utilizing a very tight standing guillotine choke.
Henderson managed to unify the belt and become the WEC undisputed lightweight champion, spoiling Varner’s return to the WEC in the main event of another fast-paced event put on by World Extreme Cagefighting.
