Urijah Faber dominates in his WEC bantamweight debut
Urijah Faber closed out his career in the World Extreme Cagefighting promotion with a dominant performance, choking out Takeya Mizugaki in the first round.
Faber, the former WEC flyweight champion, was making his bantamweight (135lb) debut in this fight, and was in desperate need of a win after losing three of his last six fights.
During the first two minutes of the fight, Faber and Mizugaki exchanged strikes, with neither doing any significant damage. As the fighters entered the final minute of the first round,
Faber took the back of the standing Mizugaki and worked toward securing a choke.
Mizugaki attempted to dislodge Faber by slamming him to the ground. The slam attempt was ineffective, leaving Mizugaki even more vulnerable to Faber’s tightening choke. With 20 seconds
left in the round, Mizugaki rolled to his stomach, making it difficult for the referee, Josh Rosenthal, to determine how he was faring. With 10 seconds left in the round, Rosenthal had seen enough and stopped the fight.
After the stoppage, Faber rolled to his back with the seemingly unconscious Mizugaki atop him. Faber, obviously concerned about the health of his opponent, stayed in that position until
the doctor came into the ring and let him know that it was safe to move Mizugaki.
In his post fight press conference Faber had this to say about the fight’s finish, “I didn’t realize he was out for so long, but I knew he was going out, because I could tell how deep
it was. For the most part, I was choking him with one arm. I looked up and he was stiffened up on top of me, and it was kind of scary. You don’t want to do that to someone.”
The fight marks the final bout in Faber’s WEC career, as the organization will be absorbed into the Ultimate Fighting Championship at the beginning of 2011. The merger will move the WEC
bantamweight (135 pounds), featherweight (145) and lightweight (155) weight classes into the UFC. The UFC does currently have a lightweight division, but the bantamweight and featherweight weight classes and their titles will be new to the organization.
Faber’s win will most likely put him on the short list to compete for the UFC bantamweight title in the near future.
WEC bantamweight champion Dominick Cruz will defend his title on the final WEC card on 16 December against Scott Jorgensen. The winner of that fight will transition into the UFC champion
on 1 January 2011.
Tags: