Wec 36

[Bigpapa42]

Anyone else watch it tonight? Some crazy results in those fights. Not at all what most expected...

[ACCBiggz]

To me, personally, there was no huge upset. Garcia over Pulver is a mild one at best, and Garcia is a strong tough guy at 145, and Brown is the same for Faber. I had Brown winning by TKO in the 2nd in predictions. Honestly, the only reason this is a 'huge' upset for casual fans is that they don't really have any idea who Brown is... people in the industry know him and his skills, and while most would still pick Faber, it's not a surprising result.

[Bigpapa42]

[QUOTE=ACCBiggz;520092]To me, personally, there was no huge upset. Garcia over Pulver is a mild one at best, and Garcia is a strong tough guy at 145, and Brown is the same for Faber. I had Brown winning by TKO in the 2nd in predictions. Honestly, the only reason this is a 'huge' upset for casual fans is that they don't really have any idea who Brown is... people in the industry know him and his skills, and while most would still pick Faber, it's not a surprising result.[/QUOTE] If you called all of the results, I sure hope you had some money down. Because you would have won some cash. Garcia, Brown, and Sonnen were all underdogs. For a reason. Leonard Garcia is a tough guy. He's better suited to 145 than when he fought in the UFC at 155, but its still a former UFC champion he's facing. I knew Brown from his previous WEC fight. And while his last two wins before this were solid, three of his four wins prior were over guys with 50-50 records or worse. Plus a win of Yves Edwards, which isn't the biggest accomplishment at this point. Faber is a guy getting pimped by many as the best in the world at 145. A lot of people seem to think he could go toe-to-toe with Kid Yamamoto. So even if its against a solid opponent, Faber getting TKO'd it something of a surprise. If most people "in the industry" were picking Faber to win, then the widespread assumption was of a Faber win. So its at least something of a surprise when he didn't. To me, the biggest surprise was Paulo Filho. Not him losing so much as the fact that he looked awful. Its the most logical given his circumstances - rehab, personal issues, coming in overweight. But this is a guy many felt was one of the top 185ers in the world barely a year ago, and he looked like he didn't belong in the cage.

[Pampero Firpo]

I agree with Papa -- I was absolutely shocked at Filho's performance. Many considered him the #2 MW in the world and last night he looked like the kind of guy to get eliminated in the first round of TUF. I was worried when he weighed in 7 pounds over -- that's insanely high for a professional. And it was clear the extra weight wasn't muscles (put down the Twinkies, Paulo). He obviously wasn't prepared for this fight and seemed almost disinterested. It seems like he still hasn't recovered from his personal issues. Based on his performance he probably just lost out on a UFC contract now that WEC is shutting down their MW division. Sad. Garcia's victory was the least surprising of the three to me, although I thought Pulver would outbox him and pick up the decision. Still, Garcia's a damned good fighter and I think Pulver might have lost a step. Brown beating Faber was an upset -- Faber was on most lists of top pound-for-pound fighters. Hell, he hadn't lost in over 3 years and had picked up 13 straight wins (and only one -- Pulver -- went the distance). Brown is a top fighter and was obviously worthy of a title shot, but I thought Faber would be too much for him. The one thing about Faber is he does get reckless in fights. While it makes his bouts entertaining, it does leave him open sometimes-- and Brown took advantage here. All in all in what a good night of fights -- well, except the Filho/Sonnen bout, which was boring as hell. Still, you gotta love WEC. Excellent fights on free TV and they feature the lower weight classes, which are very exciting. I was disappointed they didn't show the Yahya fight, but I'm sure they'll put it on Versus sometime soon. Now we get to look forward to Torres vs. Tapia -- Torres is 34-1 and only 5 of his wins have gone the distance. And he's avenged his only loss. Tapia may be undefeated, but I've got my money on Torres. Ought to be good.