Post WEC 48

WEC 48 proved to be an exciting night of surprises. Manny Gamburyan proved he can hang with the best after becoming a finalist on TUF 5 and getting a win over former featherweight champion Mike Brown. The lightweight championship bout amd rematch between Donald Cerrone

and Ben Henderson also surprised fans watching tonight. Their first

meeting in the cage went the distance and every second was filled with

excitement. The fight was Sherdog's fight of the year for 2009 and for

a good reason. It seemed safe to assume the fight would at least go

into the championship rounds if not going the distance. However,

Henderson was able to secure his second title defense and a submission

victory in the first round putting him at 12-1 as a pro. Aldo vs Faber

went the distance and Aldo was able to secure a unanimous decision

victory over The California Kid. After the fight, Aldo showed Class

and what this sport is bout by congradulating Faber and baking his

hand over bad over. This is contrary to the end of the last couple MMA

events (the Strikeforce Brawl and Anderson Silva's dance and

embarassing performance at UFC 112) and exactly what MMA needs right

now. Aldo was able to chop down Faber with many leg kicks which took

away all of Faber's power and his ability to stand knocking him down

many times throughout the fight. Aldo's leg kicks and Faber's response

and falls were remeniscent of Matt Hughes' fight against Renzo Gracie

at UFC 112 where Hughes chopped Gravie down to the point where he

couldn't even stand at the end of the third round. Aldo was dominant

over Faber the entire fight but did not finish Faber. Joe Rogan stated

the end of the fight was boring, but in my opinion Aldo was working

the entire fight and simply showed his respect for Faber by not taking

any silly chances to get ko'd by Faber's power. Aldo was close to

finishing but Faber was just too tough for Aldo. Aldo rocked him with

a head kick and swarmed on Faber, but faber stuck in there. After

seeing this, I expected a Scott Smith type comeback similar to his win

over Cung Le at Strikeforce Evolution (he was getting beaten the whole

fight and turned the tides on Le by securing a KO win in the final

minutes of the third round), but he was chopped down with leg kicks

and was not able to do anything against Aldo but hang in the fight.

Now after Aldo's very dominant performance over one of the top

featherweight in the world it is safe to say Aldo is the real deal. It

has been said that Aldo is the second coming of Anderson Silva, and it

may be too early to say so, but he definetely posses the skill and is

only 23, so he has many years o prove himself in the sport. Up next

for Aldo may be Manny Gamburyan after his stunning defeat over former

champion Mike Brown. Fight Videos from WEC 48 coming soon!