I did not do the live updates for the WEC 31 event on 12/12 as I did with TUF 6 Finale frankly because I wanted to take in the entire event to really evaluate where WEC is at this stage.  This was the promotion's close-out show of 2007 and had a card full of promise.  Although the event redeemed itself with the last 2 fights, to me WEC remains a one-hit wonder, it's "one" hit being the top of its 145 lbs. division. 

 

I'll start with this one hit.  Fortunately for WEC 31, the 2 top fighters of its 145 lbs. division fought in separate fights, so we got 2 excellent bouts (hence "one" hit was actually two this time, but most likely will only be one next time).  First was a long awaited WEC debut of Jens Pulver, who was returning to 145 lbs. after a loss to BJ Penn in a UFC lightweight match.  "Little Evil," undefeated at 145, was facing Cub Swanson, a young, skilled and physical fighter.  WEC tried to build this as a "grudge" match, with some success (Jens was loudly booed by the So Cal-heavy crowd--Swanson is from Southern Cali, prominently tattooed on his chest).  The fight seemed like a good test for Pulver, but only if you believed he is on the decline.  And he loudly proved that he isn't.  Pulver submitted Swanson almost immediately (35 seconds) with a modified guillotine choke, in the process showing excellent take down defense and wrestling skills.  The 35 seconds were exciting, but again mostly because of uncertainty of how Little Evil is doing.  If you thought he was at his normal strength and training, the result was to be expected.  Swanson, while a promising fighter, was wildly overmatched.  Jens Pulver is a world class veteran of MMA, transitioning seamlessly between UFC and Japanese promotions and fighting at 155 lbs. for many of the fights.  Although his conditioning was not tested, he showed that his skills are fresh (always a danger for a veteran fighter) and that he will be a formidable challenge to the WEC featherweight champion, who featured in the other exciting fight of the night, and is truly WEC's hit. 

 

Urijah Faber defended his title against a dangerous and experienced (with more fights than Little Evil!) Jeff Curran.  And Curran proved that he deserved the title shot immediately, taking Faber down and working to his back, putting the champ in his worst predicament in recent memory.  It didn't look good for Faber, as Curran glued himself to his back for over 2 minutes with a body triangle, throwing punches and working hard for the choke.  But Faber remained unfazed.  Toward the end of the first round he was finally able to turn into Curran's guard and end the round on a better note.  Second round was a bit different, as Faber regained control in both stand up and ground (with his signature ground and pound).  Finally, as Curran tried another take down, Faber submitted him with a guillotine choke at 4:35 of second round.  Very impressive win for Faber. 

 

And there you have the best of WEC.  Both winners clearly thought that they will fight each other next, and I can't imagine WEC not complying.  That will be a very interesting fight--it will test both fighters.  Is Pulver really still in his prime?  Is Faber truly among the best of MMA?  I can't wait for this fight, and will surely write about it in the future here.  It ranks close to the upcoming A. Silva-Henderson bout. 

 

Unfortunately, that was it for top entertainment at WEC 31.  The other 2 title defenses failed to live up to the billing, although for different reasons.  The light heavyweight bout between champ Doug Marshall and Ariel Gandulla, to be fair, was not supposed to be anything pretty, and it wasn't.  It was a quick submission for Marshall via armbar.   Marshall perhaps showed some versatility in knowing an armbar, but Gandulla looked terrible in his grappling (he has a wrestling pedigree, but looked like no one told him about submissions). 

 

The other title defense was that of Paulo Filho, and this one was supposed to be good.  He was facing veteran fighter and an excellent wrestler Chael Sonnen, but was favored, because he has been continuously billed as one of the best, if not the best, 185-pounders in the world.  Well, after watching the fight, I beg to differ.  Sonnen, for the lack of better word, beat the hell out of Filho for a good part of 2 rounds.  He nearly knocked him out with punches (and Filho may have actually gone out for a second or two), and then literally threw him around and pounded him.  Filho had no answer on the feet or on the ground.  Sonnen had a scare at the end of round 1, when Filho threw up a shallow armbar attempt, seemingly hurting Sonnen's arm a bit.  But 2nd round looked the same, and Filho was clearly losing.  That is, until about 10-15 seconds were left on the clock...  Sonnen, still fresh, still a veteran, still a skilled wrestler, inexplicably stuck his hand in the middle of Filho's chest, didn't pull back when Filho slowly and deliberately grabbed it, and didn't produce any kind of intelligent defense as Filho's legs went up around his head.  With 5 seconds left in the round, Chonnen, face in pain, yelled something as ref was closely watching, at which point ref stopped the fight and declared Filho the winner "by verbal submission."   Chonnen said he tried to tell the ref not to stop the fight.  So, was he mad that, WEC title within his grasp, ref wrongfully stopped the fight with only 5 seconds left in a round?  No, he was OK with it.  And so, WEC's heavily promoted middleweight champion remained undefeated.  Hmmm... 

 

Well, regardless of the inexplicable ending, Filho looked terrible.  Maybe it was a bad night, or maybe he never recovered from Sonnen's early punches, but either way, it would be a travesty to name him among the best in the world while Silva and Henderson are in the same weight class.  

 

That's it for fights (there was one undercard shown, but not worth discussing).  But, there was at least one other thing that WEC needs to work on--ring announcers.  I like Frank Mir as a fighter, but he is no Randy when it comes to either commentary or fighter interviews.  His partner was not much better.  And how come WEC fighters can't say anything exciting in those interviews?  There was a marked difference between Jens Pulver, UFC veteran, and every other fighter interviewed.  Do UFC fighters get some training?  (I doubt it).  And bad commentary is especially disappointing since it is an easy area to fix (unlike the fighter quality, which is much harder to address). 

 

There you have my take on WEC 31.  Next event will be title defenses by Lightweight and Welterweight champs, Rob McCullough and Carlos Condit, in February, but the next time WEC will have a hit will only be when Faber faces Pulver.