ESPN's MMA Live breaks down Saturday's UFC 99 fight card featuring Rich Franklin vs. Wanderlei Silva and takes a look back at this past weekend's WEC 41 "Brown vs. Faber 2" and Strikeforce "Lawler vs. Shields."
VERSUS, the exclusive television home of World Extreme Cagefighting, will re-air the most-anticipated featherweight championship re-match in MMA history between Mike Brown and Urijah Faber on Wednesday, June 10, at 9 p.m. ET and again at 12 a.m. ET.
The fight, which aired live on VERSUS on Sunday, June 7, featured five full rounds of intense action in the cage in which Mike Brown proved to viewers that he is still the #1 featherweight fighter in the world. Faber, who broke his hand in the first round, battled it out until the very end, but without full use of both hands, Faber was unable to overcome Brown and win back his belt.
"The five-round championship battle between Mike Brown and Urijah Faber was not only one of the must-see WEC events of year, but one of the best fights in MMA history," said Marc Fein, Executive Vice President of Programming, Production and Business Operations for VERSUS. "From the moment the fight ended last night, we began receiving a ton of feedback to re-air the epic battle as soon as possible. So to keep in line with our mission of super-serving passionate fans, we decided to give them what they asked for and re-air the entire card just days after the live action took place in Sacramento."
In addition to the Brown vs. Faber re-match, the card also featured several other top featherweight fights, including Josh "The Fluke" Grispi vs. former UFC lightweight champion Jens "Lil Evil" Pulver, Cub Swanson vs. Jose Aldo and John Franchi vs. "The Ultimate Fighter" runner-up in season five, Manvel Gamburyan. The fight between Donald "Cowboy" Cerrone and James Krause was the featured lightweight bout on the card and the battle between Antonio Banuelos and Scott Jorgensen was the featured bantamweight match.
The California State Athletic Commission on Monday released the final gate and attendance numbers for Sunday's WEC 41 held in Sacramento, Calif.
The WEC's unofficial numbers stood at 13,027 attendees, but official figures were lower.
Officially, 12,706 fans took in the event, with 10,110 paid attendees for $815,415 in live gate revenue.
The final tally stands as the highest live gate figure in the promotion's history. The first WEC held at the Arco Arena, featuring Urijah Faber vs. Jens Pulver 1, was the previous record holder with 12,682 fans in attendance for a $738,855 take.
Steve Cofield of ESPN Radio 1100 and Cagewriter.com talks at length with Mike Brown as the hours dwindle down to his WEC featherweight title defense against former champ Urijah Faber.
UFC president Dana White's second installment of his WEC 41 video blog. Includes Quinton "Rampage" Jackson, Wanderlei Silva, and others leading up to the rematch between current WEC featherweight champion Mike Thomas Brown and former champ Urijah Faber.
Not only are WEC featherweight champ Mike Brown and challenger Urijah Faber guests on a special edition of MMAWeekly Radio on Wednesday night, but Damon & Jeff will also be taking calls to give away two of the BRAND NEW Urijah Faber Silver Star t-shirts.
Brown and Faber will rematch on June 7 at WEC 41 in Sacramento, Calif., seven months after Brown defeated Faber in Hollywood, Fla., to capture the title belt. Since then, Brown has gone on to defend against Leonard Garcia, while Faber bounced back by defeating former UFC lightweight champion Jens Pulver for a second time.
A preview of the upcoming WEC featherweight title fight between champion Mike Brown and former champ Urijah Faber. Can the California Kid come back and beat the man that beat him?
Although there is never a certainty in the business of mixed martial arts, for now former World Extreme Cagefighting featherweight champion, Urijah Faber, won't be booking a flight for Chicago for a rumored bout against Brazilian stand-out, Wagnney Fabiano, as confirmed to the MMA Insider's Blog on Monday.
The rumor began to circle after Fabiano stated in an interview with Tatame.com that he thinks "it will be Faber" as an opponent at the April show set for Chicago, Ill.
Sources close to the "California Kid" indicated on Monday that there was no truth to the proposed bout, and all indications are that Faber is waiting for the winner of Mike Brown and Leonard Garcia, who are set to do battle on March 1 for the 145lb title.
Originally, Faber was a candidate to get an immediate rematch with Mike Brown after losing to the American Top Team fighter in Nov 2007, but when Brown suffered a rib injury and had to sit out for a time, the Sacramento native didn't want to wait that long for a fight and opted for a January showdown with Jens Pulver instead.
Faber went onto defeat Pulver and now all signs point to the former champion getting another shot at the gold in early summer barring any injuries to either competitor in the championship bout.
As expected, World Extreme Cagefighting on Wednesday announced a featherweight championship between champion Mike Brown and challenger Leonard Garcia, as well as welterweight champ Carlos Condit's next title defense in a rematch with Brock Larson.
WEC 39 will take place at the American Bank Center in Corpus Christi, Texas on March 1. The event marks the promotion's first foray into the Lone Star State.
The latest episode of Inside MMA (Episode #245) on HDNet features WEC featherweight champion Mike Brown, rising heavyweight Dave Herman, and MMA oddsmaker Nick Kalikas, as well as the breakdown of UFC 91 Couture vs. Lesnar.
Following the biggest win of his career, American Top Team fighter Mike Brown walked away from the cage and as cameras followed him to the back, he was noticeably wincing in pain and holding his rib cage area.
At first it was thought that Brown somehow broke a rib during his first round knockout of former champion, Urijah Faber.
MMAInsider confirmed after further analysis that Brown actually suffered torn rib cartilage during the fight that caused him extreme pain after the match-up was over.
According to inside sources, Brown still has no idea when the injury occurred and it was only after the fight was over that he actually felt any pain in his rib cage area.
The new WEC featherweight champion had to receive medical attention and didn't even get to enjoy his post fight party!
No word on how long the injury will sideline the new top featherweight, but he is expected to make a full recovery.
Just a heads up for everybody tuning into Versus on Wednesday night to check out the latest World Extreme Cagefighting show, that the broadcast will begin at 8pm EST/5pm PST.
This is an hour earlier than the normal showtime so just want to make sure everyone is aware of the time difference.
The main event pits WEC featherweight champion, Urijah Faber, against American Top Team stand out, Mike Brown, for the 145lb title.
The co-main event will be a rematch between champion, Paulo Filho, and top contender, Chael Sonnen.
Full Card:
-Urijah Faber (#1 Featherweight in the World)* vs. Mike Brown (#6 Featherweight in the World)* -Paulo Filho (#3 Middleweight in the World)* vs. Chael Sonnen -Jens Pulver vs. Leonard Garcia -Rob McCullough vs. Donald Cerrone -Jake Rosholt vs. Nissen Osterneck -Yoshiro Maeda vs. Rani Yahya -Jose Aldo vs. Jonathan Brookins -Carmelo Marrero vs. Steve Steinbeiss -Danny Castillo vs. Rafael Dias -Johnny Hendricks vs. Alex Serdyukov -David Avellan vs. Aaron Simpson
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