» Fighter: Urijah Faber

The WEC officially announced WEC 48 headlined by WEC featherweight champion “Junior” Jose Aldo (15-1) versus former champ ”California Kid” Urijah Faber (22-3) in Sacramento April 24.  It’ll be the WEC’s first pay per view (PPV) event and they will charge $44.99.

Read More About The WEC’s Pay Per View Problem: Why Should I Pay for Jose Aldo vs. Urijah Faber at WEC 48?…

The anticipated lightweight title unification bout between WEC champion “The Worm” Jamie Varner (16-3) and interim champion “Smooth” Ben Henderson (9-1) will take place at WEC 46 at ARCO Arena in Sacramento on January 10, the WEC confirmed Monday.

Read More About WEC 46: Jamie Varner Versus Ben Henderson, Return of Urijah Faber…

“California Kid” Urijah Faber (22-3) signed a multi-fight, multi-year contract to return to Zuffa, LLC.-owned World Extreme Cagefighting, announced WEC general manager Reed Harris on MMA Junkie Radio Monday.

Read More About Faber Signs WEC Contract, WEC 44 Bolstered With Nunes v Davis…

The WEC officially announced Monday that WEC 38: Varner vs Cerrone will take place 25 January at the San Diego Sports Arena in San Diego, CA.

Besides the title defense by WEC Lightweight Champion “The Worm” Jamie Varner (15-3) against “Cowboy” Donald Cerrone (8-1), WEC 38 will feature a rematch between “California Kid” Urijah Faber (21-2) and “Little Evil” Jens Pulver (22-9-1).

Faber, then the Featherweight Champion, earned a unanimous decision victory over Pulver in their first fight at WEC 34 in June.

Faber lost his title at WEC 36 in November when he was TKO’d at 2:23 of round one by Mike Thomas Brown (16-4).

Pulver also lost his last fight at the same event.  He was TKO’d at 1:12 of the first round by “Bad Boy” Leonard Garcia (11-3).

Former WEC Featherweight champion “California Kid” Urijah Faber (21-2) got shocked by American Top Team’s Mike Thomas Brown (15-4) via TKO stoppage at 2:23 of the first round Wednesday night at WEC 36 in Hollywood, north of Miami.

Brown took the title decisively following a right hand that laid the former champ out. 

Chael Sonnen (21-9-1) won a surprisingly boring unanimous decision over Fighters.com’s third-ranked middleweight and WEC Middleweight Champion Paulo Filho (15-1) in a non-title fight that was heckled by fans throughout.  Official scores were 10-9 twice for Sonnen, 10-8 for Sonnen.

 ”Bad Boy” Leonard Garcia (11-3) dismantled “Little Evil” Jens Pulver (22-9-1) in a 1:12 TKO shocker to move up the ranks in the WEC’s stacked 145-pound division.

Read More About WEC 36: Mike Thomas Brown Shocks Urijah Faber To Take The Title, Garcia Dismantles Pulver….

Fighters.com caught up with WEC featherweight title challenger Mike Thomas Brown  (19-4) on the horizon of the most important fight of his career in Sunrise, north of Miami, 5 November.

Fighters.com: On November fifth you’re facing “California Kid” Urijah Faber (21-0) for the WEC featherweight title.  Some analysts have labeled Faber the best MMA featherweight in history.  Does facing a popular fighter like Faber bring intimidation or do you find motivation in the potential dethroning of a champion during the peak of his career?

Mike Thomas Brown:  I love being the underdog.  I have nothing to lose and everything to gain.  Urijah is a very tough guy; but, I train with tons of tough guys.  It’s just another day at the office.

Fighters.com: Would you say that the approaching title bout is the most important fight of your life?

Read More About Brownie: “Hardcore fight fans know what I’m capable of doing; but, some people don’t know anything beyond ‘The Ultimate Fighter’.”…

WEC Featherweight Champion “California Kid” Urijah Faber (21-1) will defend his title against Florida native Mike Thomas Brown (19-4) 10 September in Hollywood, FL, the WEC announced Thursday.

Faber most recently won a unanimous decision against former UFC Lightweight Champion “Little Evil” Jens Pulver (25-10-1) in June, extending his win streak to thirteen.

WEC 36 will be Faber’s sixth title defense.

Brown, from American Top Team, will look to extend his own seven-fight win streak. He most recently earned a unanimous decision over “The Big Frog” Jeff Curran (34-10-1) in June.

Also headlining the event is a middleweight title rematch between champion “Ely” Paulo Filho (16-0) and Chael Sonnen (20-9-1).

“Bad Boy” Leonard Garcia (11-3) has had his share of tough fights.  In March, a fight for his freedom was in the first round.

It all started when a hometown acquaintance of Garcia’s was arrested with a large amount of cocaine back in 2005. 

Unfortunately for Garcia, his visitor was caught right outside of Garcia’s home with the stash.

“This was something that happened way before I was in the UFC or the WEC.  I had kind of took a wrong turn in life and had a poor judgment of friends,” Garcia said.

The WEC featherweight stand out was charged as a co-conspirator and connected to a South Texas drug ring, affecting whis whole family, which includes Jackson’s MMA.

The news shocked the entire mixed martial arts world and especially Garcia.

Read More About Leonard Garcia is “Guilty By Association”…

Fighters.com’s fourth-ranked lightweight “Prodigy” BJ Penn (13-4-1), “The Count” Michael Bisping (16-1), “California Kid” Urijah Faber (21-1), and Carlos Condit (22-4) are among the fighters who will travel to Afghanistan this month to visit the members of the U.S. Military stationed there.  The tour, 14-23 June, will cover six military bases.

UFC President Dana White said, “We are honored to send UFC and WEC fighters to visit the men and women of the United States Military. We are pleased to be giving back to such a great cause; many of our fighters have served in the military and understand what a great contribution our troops are making overseas.”

Among those who have previously visited the military are second-ranked heavyweight “The Natural” Randy Couture (16-8), second-ranked middleweight “Ace” Rich Franklin (23-3), “Huntington Beach Bad Boy” Tito Ortiz (15-6-1), and fifth-ranked welterweight Matt Hughes (42-7).

Along with sending fighters to visit various bases across the US and overseas, the UFC also staged an event, UFC: Fight Night 7, at the Marine Corps Air Station Miramar in San Diego, that was open only to troops.

At a UFC 83 press conference in Montréal Friday, UFC President Dana White, fighting illness, revealed his plans to feature lower weight classes in the WEC and higher weight classes in the UFC.

“We’re still trying to figure that out,” White admitted, but added, “We’re going to make the WEC the smaller weights and the UFC will be the heavier weights.  We’ll probably take some of the guys in the higher weights, the champions over there and bring them into UFC.”

The WEC currently features featherweight, lightweight, welterweight, middleweight, and light heavyweight divsions.  The UFC includes lightweight up to heavyweight divisions.

The UFC has recently lost several top heavyweight talents, including Fighters.com’s third-ranked heavyweight “Maine-iac” Tim Sylvia (24-4), who was released by white and signed by Adrenaline MMA.

Fighters.com’s second-ranked heavyweight, “The Natural” Randy Couture (16-8) “resigned” from his UFC contract in October 2007; though, White continues to consider Couture a co-holder of the UFC heavyweight title with “Minotauro” Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira (31-4-1).  Friday, White repeated his invitation to Couture to settle the championship versus Nogueira.

Fighters.com’s sixth-ranked heavyweight “Pitbull” Andrei Arlovski (12-5) is currently a free agent and expected to leave the UFC, though White repeated Friday his optimism in re-signing Arlovski.

Former top-ranked heavy “Cro Cop” Mirko Filipovic (23-6-2) was also recently released from his UFC contract after losing two straight.

Champions who could be changing promotions are WEC Light Heavyweight Champion “All American” Brian Stann (6-0), WEC Middleweight Champion and Fighters.com third-ranked 185-pounder “Ely” Paulo Filho (16-0), and UFC Lightweight Champion and Fighters.com’s fourth-ranked 155-pounder “The Prodigy” B.J. Penn (12-4-1).

White also mentioned his desire to match WEC Featherweight Champion “California Kid” Urijah Faber (20-1) versus “Kid” Norifumi Yamamoto (17-1).  The two fighters are considered the world’s best at 145-pounds.  White stated that “Kid” “comes with a big price-tag.”