Man, I was so tired I fell asleep during the Varner /Cerrone fight. I woke up like “WTF happened?”

I was sooo sleepy this morning son…lol

yeah, Varner seems like the sneaky type…I remember against McCullough he got that timeout to get his mouthpiece when he was almost finished….but he’s still champ

lol..that was funny as hell.

I’m predicting it now, Faber won’t beat the winner of Brown/Garcia…

Not a bad prediction…especially Brown…son is huge.

i didn’t watch the wec, was with the lady playing madden08 whle she read a book for grad class. i don’t have versus anymore and didn’t feel like watching it on my computer. i just started a franchise anyway and wanted to get my skills back up and get a couple games played.

Haha…I ain’t played Madden in a minute. You need to start joining us in the open threads for the events Joseph!

I did a review for the televised card which is posted elsewhere, but the Pulver v. Faber fight really struck a chord with me and I got off on a wicked tangent that you guys may or may not find to be a good read:

Jens Pulver v. Urijah Faber: Faber hits a big blow to what appeared to be Pulver’s floating rib, and Pulver fades back… Faber smells blood and runs in, Pulver dives in for a single, but Pulver sinks in a guillotine choke which forces Pulver to tap.

After the fight the announcer asked the crowd to give a round of applause for one of the "all time greats" in Jens Pulver. It’s funny that they would bother going to that trouble when the WEC obviously has no respect for Jens. In recent memory, Jens lost his great friend Justin Eilers in what can only be described as a tragedy, his wife gave birth to his son not much longer than a month ago, not to mention a recent serious car accident that put the children of manager Monte Cox (with whom Pulver is very close) in the hospital. That’s a pretty serious rollercoaster of emotion for anyone, let alone someone who coming in to this fight was 1-4, with one of those losses to the man who he is facing.

They mentioned on-air that Pulver asked for the fight to be delayed, but that the WEC fans HAD to see the fight. Is that really true? Was anyone really clamoring for a rematch between Pulver and Faber? Don’t get me wrong, it was a tremendous fight the first time around, but this rematch doesn’t do anything positive for the WEC except for a "flash in the pan" ratings boost for the one night. Pulver winning would have put Faber 0-2 in his last two fights, which is exactly what the WEC doesn’t need with Faber being the focus of most of its advertising. Faber winning gives him a win following his loss to Mike Brown, but considering he just beat Pulver months ago in convincing fashion, what good does that do for his stock? Did anyone doubt that there would have been a different outcome given more rounds before?

What Faber winning DOES do is cast serious doubt on Pulver, which is not only unnecessary, but also disrespectful. They’ve taken a man who will be written in the history books (if there are ever MMA history books!) as one of the best lighter-weight fighters in the early years as the game, and they’re using him as a centimeter tall stepping stone for Urijah Faber. Did Faber need a rebound fight? Absolutely, but it’s downright stupid to put that much of a hurt on Pulver’s career to get it. Pulver is a fighter that can be marketed to the moon, given his time in the UFC and The Ultimate Fighter he can be used to draw in the casual audience.

I’ll watch damn-near any professional MMA (and local amateur if there isn’t something else in my way), and so will most other so-called "hardcore" fans, but the real money that Zuffa needs to tap is from the casual fans who may otherwise not watch. I’m pretty psyched about WEC 39, but about the only thing that the WEC has to market to the casual fan is a title fight between "the guy that beat Urijah Faber" and "the guy that beat Jens Pulver." Pulver and Faber are already stars in their own right, and need to be used to draw in people to watch events, and build stars from there. Pulver and Faber fighting on different cards brings in their fans on different nights, and would give the WEC an opportunity to get other fights visibility where they need it. It’s a great niche organization today, but if they want to bring it into the pay-per-view marketplace they need to have a stable of fighters that casual fans can come to recognize, and they’re not going to be able to effectively use marketable fighters like Pulver if they run them into the ground trying to build up other fighters who are already legitimate stars in their own right. But then again, what do I know?

I agree Neil for the most part…I think Carlos Condit is moving to the UFC…so I have my doubts about them ever doing PPV. Unless they plan on starting that women’s division with Gina Carano or something.

Yeah, I think that the loss of welterweight is the proverbial nail in the coffin for their PPV options, although Faber losing to Brown put them one foot in the grave. There’s little chance of them starting a women’s division, per se, although I wouldn’t be too suprised to see them do a few exhibitions here and there with the likes of Gina and Cyborg.