His (Show)Time is Now: Anthony Pettis Will Face Benson Henderson for the WEC Lightweight Championship

With WEC 51: “Aldo vs. Gamburyan” getting closer and closer, many WEC fans are strictly focused on Jose Aldo possibly continuing his path of destruction with a big victory over Manvel Gamburyan. Looking further ahead into the future, WEC 52 also promises to deliver an exciting show, with Urijah Faber making his debut at Bantamweight against Takeya Mizugaki. But now WEC 53 just landed on everyone’s radar, as World Extreme Cagefighting dropped a bombshell and announced that the main event of WEC 53 would feature a WEC Lightweight Championship match that would see world-ranked champion Benson Henderson take on the dynamic and wildly exciting “Showtime” Anthony Pettis.

MMAWeekly.com first brought news of the match-up. WEC 53 is currently scheduled to take place on December 16, 2010 in the Jobing.com Arena in Glendale, Arizona. The location was chosen via a special contest the WEC ran in conjunction with AMP Energy, which allowed fight fans to decide where WEC 53 would be held. The only other bout rumored for the card sees Bart Palaszewski taking on Kamal Shalorus.

Benson Henderson has been a man possessed since entering the WEC in January 2009. The only loss in his professional career came in 2006, and in the WEC he is an unbeaten champion. “Bendo” is on an eleven-fight win streak, with five wins in the WEC, four of them via submission. His last victory was easily his best, as he quickly submitted Donald Cerrone, a man that he had previously taken to a fifteen-round all-out war that received widespread praise and several “Fight of the Year” awards.

Anthony “Showtime” Pettis is another one-loss fighter, although that loss did occur in the WEC. In twelve fights, Pettis has been to a decision twice (with one win and one loss). On every other occasion, “Showtime” has stopped his opponent and stopped them dramatically, either with his surprisingly powerful hands or his expansive and very deadly ground game.

Here’s how I think the fight will go down. If it stays standing, both men will slug it out for five full rounds and I don’t see either one going down. Both have displayed some very thick chins in the past. It’s true that Benson Henderson has been KO’d once, but only once, and that was in his second professional fight. Pettis does have more (T)KO’s on his record than Henderson, but both men have a majority of their wins by submission. I think both men are very gifted in the stand-up game, but I also think that their tough chins will prevail over their hard hands.

When the submissions start, though, that’s when I think someone could lose this fight before the final bell rings. Both have displayed a dramatic ability to catch their opponents off-guard and get the submission win, and both have done it as recently as their last fight. Pettis has a wicked Triangle Choke, while Henderson’s specialty is the Guillotine Choke. Every time this fight goes to the ground, both men will be trying to choke out their opponent. There’s going to be no “lay and pray” here, not for one second.

I’m calling it right now: if this fight lives up to its potential, we won’t be seeing a Fight of the Year contender. If these two fight at their best, if no pre-fight injuries or pre-fight jitters shake their confidence or hinder their abilities, we’re going to see a match that is Fight of the Decade-caliber. I highly respect and even admire both fighters, and I think they are two of the most exciting, entertaining fighters currently in MMA as a whole, and not just the WEC. Simply put, there’s not a single thing that I don’t love about this fight.

And what about you, fans and friends? What do you think about this fight, and who do you think will win it?