World Extreme Cagefighting main undercard wrap up
World Extreme Cagefighting 51 took place on Thursday night at the 1st Bank Center in Broomfield Colorado, and featured a stacked main card. Fighters taking part in the bouts
leading up to the co-main events included former WEC champions Miguel Torres and Jamie Varner as well as highly touted competitors Donald Cerrone, Leonard Garcia and Chan Sung Jung.
Mike Brown, fighting on the un-televised undercard was looking to get back in the mix in the WEC featherweight division. In late 2008 Brown stunned Urijah Faber and claimed Faber’s WEC
featherweight title belt. He lost that belt late in 2009 to Jose Aldo and has seen his status in the WEC slip since then. Brown’s hope in fighting Cole Province was that, with a strong victory, he could again be considered a contender.
Brown came out and circled Province looking for an opening. He found one with an uppercut that put Province to the ground. Brown then swarmed Province and the referee moved in to stop
the bout at 1:18 of the first round, exactly the type of outcome that Brown had hoped for.
The first fight on the televised card was the featherweight bout between Leonard Garcia and Mark Hominick. These featherweights seemed content to slug it out and the fight did not go to
the ground at all. Garcia came out very aggressive and stayed aggressive until the second round when his tank clearly began to run low. On the other hand, Hominick seemed content to take his time and look for an opening.
It was not hard to find an opening with the wide hooks being thrown by Garcia, and Hominick popped in some sharp left jabs. In the end, while Garcia was clearly the more aggressive fighter,
Hominick was scoring with more of his punches and the split decision went to Hominick.
Next on the card was the tall and lanky George Roop taking on Chan Sung Jung. In this fight Roop was looking to make a name for himself against the “Korean Zombie.” Jung had seemingly
won over many fans as evidenced by the “Korean Zombie” shirts seen throughout the crowd.
Jung lived up to his nickname as he pressed Roop slowly and deliberately early in the fight, just walking in looking to land a big shot. Roop looked to be in control of the fight, landing
an assortment of kicks and punches. At 1m30s into the second round, Roop delivered a stunningly hard kick right to Jung's jaw. Jung was out before he even hit the ground. With the knock-out, Roop did exactly what he wanted to do in this fight, gave himself
an opportunity to move up in WEC. He also received a $10,000 bonus for knock-out of the night.
It was going to be hard to follow the Roop vs. Jung fight but Miguel Torres and Charlie Valencia did not disappoint. Torres walked toward Valenica with a very awkward stance, his left
arm fully extended, his chin tucked to his left shoulder and his right hand cocked and ready beside his right ear.
Valencia struggled with Torres's new more calculated approach, and he could not generate any offence. Torres dropped Valencia late in round one and delivered a barrage of strikes just
before the bell sounded.
The second round was more of the same with Torres dropping Valencia to the ground with a strong right hand. Valencia saw an opportunity to regain his feet, but it was short lived as a
knee dropped him back down. Torres took Valencia’s back at that point and locked a figure four on to control his opponent’s hips. Once Valencia’s hips were controlled Torres sank in a rear naked choke and Valencia tapped out.
Torres needed a strong victory as he was hearing questions about his status in WEC. He had been on a two-fight losing streak prior to this bout. The victory and the $10,000 “Submission
of the Night” award should help quiet the doubters of this former champion.
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