WEC 47 was held on Saturday, March 6th at the Nationwide Arena in Columbus, Ohio and broadcast live on the Versus Network. The main event featured Brian Bowles defending his bantamweight title against Dominick Cruz, but also showcased the return of former bantamweight champ Miguel Torres and former UFC lightweight champion Jens Pulver.
Attendance: 8,345 (5th highest in WEC history)
Gate: TBA
Ratings: TBA
Payouts via MMAFighting.com:
Televised Card
Dominick Cruz ($9,000+$9,000=$18,000) def. Brian Bowles ($12,000)
Joseph Benavidez ($14,500+$14,500=$29,000) def. Miguel Torres ($26,000)
Javier Vazquez ($6,000+$6,000=$12,000) def. Jens Pulver ($14,000)
LC Davis ($9,000+$9,000=$18,000) def. Deividas Taurosevicius ($9,000)
Bart Palaszewski ($6,000+$6,000=$12,000) def. Karen Darabedyan ($4,000)
Preliminary Card
Scott Jorgensen ($8,000+$8,000=$16,000) def. Chad George ($3,000)
Chad Mendes ($4,000+$4,000=$8,000) def. Erik Koch ($3,000)
Anthony Pettis ($3,000+$3,000=$6,000) def. Danny Castillo ($9,500)
Leonard Garcia ($14,000) fought George Roop ($3,000) to a split draw
Fredson Paixao ($2,000+$2,000=$4,000) def. Courtney Buck ($3,000)
Ricardo Lamas ($5,000+$5,000=$10,000) def. Bendy Casimir ($3,000)
Bonuses
Fight of the Night: George Roop vs. Leonard Garcia ($10,000 each)
Knockout of the Night: Anthony Pettis ($10,000)
Submission of the Night: Joseph Benavidez ($10,000)
Total Disclosed Payouts ($236,500)
Total Disclosed Bonuses ($40,000)
Payout Perspective:
The one thing that really stuck out in my mind throughout the course of the evening was that we’re continuing to see this transition from old to new in the fight game. It reminds me a lot of the UFC’s 2007 when we saw the old vanguard the likes of Liddell, Franklin, and Hughes fall from grace. Last night we saw Torres lose his second straight and Pulver 5th; if Faber loses at WEC 48 it’ll more or less flush out the WEC champions of old from the contention picture. However, to be fair, that’s a sizable if.
Some fans are lamenting the fact that there’s been a great deal of turnover at the top of the WEC’s divisions in the last year, but that seems to be par for the course in any transition phase. Yes, there’s no uber-talented standout that fans can cling to (although Aldo may become just the sort), but it’s always dangerous when a promotion only has one main draw. EliteXC had this problem, Strikeforce is trying to avoid this problem, and it looks as though the WEC is on its away to building a new generation for itself.
No word yet from Harris or Dropick on the state of the WEC’s flyweight division, but I suppose that might be something we hear about in April as they prepare to go on a PR blitz for their first PPV card.
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Musclepharm signed on with the WEC to become its exclusive supplement provider a few weeks ago and the brand was literally everywhere on Saturday. The company didn’t just have cage signage and graphic sponsorship, but nearly every fighter had MP on his shorts and fight banner; which likely means those fighters also got a piece of the action. It’s a smart way to activate around the sponsorship – for as much as BSN talks about being the provider of the UFC, they don’t sponsor more than a few fighters. Perhaps they ought to.
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Most commissions require promoters to submit an official attendance and gate receipts tally within 10 days, so I imagine we’ll be seeing the results shortly. There’s a chance this gate tops $500,000, which would be outstanding for the organization regularly; doubly so because the event was held outside of California.
The loss by Torres was a huge surprise for me. Faber can win, but he can’t be going in as the favorite. I was not that impressed with his last fight and found him a bit sloppy.
I was not suprised at all. I told my friends i felt both would get beat (bowles and torres). I will give you the reasons why. First the easy one. Bowles. He is new to top compeittion and in almost everyone one of his fights he is losing or looking bad and pulls out the win. But he is sloppy and has no defense. You can only swing wild and leave your hands down so many times. He was even rocked by Torres when he pulled off the finish. Having the belt dont make you imune to losing.
Torres is a great fighter and i like him. BUt like everyone in MMA he has a weakness and his physical build only allows him to be good at curtain things. Torres become a legend of a division that had no appeal, noone wanting to compete in it, and no money to be made in it. Now that WEC has come along they give 135 structure and a stage to perform on whch bring fame and money but also top fighters interested and all under one roof. Torres isnt scraping grass root events looking for fights. He also isnt getting perfect style fightd either. Torres has never proved himself verses a wrestler stylist who can stop subs. Torres isnt build to stop Tds and if he cant pull of the sub he is in trouble. His only chance was is Joseph choose to stand with him and Torres picked him apart.
It’s time the stop giving Jens Pulver fights. That dude is gonna get killed in the ring soon, he just takes total ass whoopings anymore, he mad $14,000? If he needs the money that bad he’s got problems. Make a Garcia-Pulver rematch and maybe Garcia can just kill him this time, since he came close last match. Please stop booking Jens.
Agree. I have always like Jens but his age is hurting him. At HW where the talent isnt as athletic you can get by when you are older as the fighters are not as fast and able to be effective at all styles and in all positions. In smaller class’ if you get older and slower it gets exposed very early. Jens dont have the chin to take on strikers and he is now to slow to make people miss. I thought his TD defense was still good enought to keep Javier standing but even his sprawl and scrambling have slowed too. He just cant hand with younger fighters.