WEC 44 Preview: Leonard Garcia vs. Manny Gamburyan

The co-main event consists of two former UFC lightweight fighters that dropped down to the featherweight division of the WEC.  Manny Gamburyan was a finalist on the fifth season of TUF, while Garcia is most known for his epic war with Roger Huerta at UFC 69.  Gamburyan is coming into this fight with an overall record of (9-4) with 6 of those wins coming via submission.  He won his WEC debut against John Franchi back at WEC 41.  His standup game isn't nearly as developed as it should be at this point.  But, he's a compact guy standing only 5'5" and fights at a high, smothering pace that just grinds his opponents down leading to either submission wins or decisions.  That's probably the most effective style for him given his lack of reach.  It's exactly the way he'll need to fight if he's going to take out Garcia.

Leonard Garcia comes into this fight off a very close split decision win over Jameel Massouh at WEC 42.  Before that, Garcia fought for the WEC featherweight title and got steamrolled by the current champion Mike Brown.  Garcia comes into this fight with an overall record of (13-4) with 9 wins via submission and 3 KO's.  He's well versed on the ground, but lately has become a headhunter with his punches.  However, he hits like a mack truck, so if he connects it could be lights out for Gamburyan.  The only problem with winging those punches is that it leaves Garcia vulnerable to the take down because he's off balance a lot while throwing those punches. This is something Gamburyan can take advantage of to secure the take down.  Gamburyan's stocky build makes him difficult to submit, so he could very well grind out a decision win here against Garcia if he doesn't get decapitated first.   

SBN coverage of WEC 44: Brown vs. Aldo