THE TWO SHEDS REVIEW by Julian Radbourne
E-mail: juli316uk@yahoo.co.uk
Website: http://twoshedsreview.blogspot.com
As the Extreme Sports channel continues to wind it’s repetitive way through a dozen WEC shows we’re going to take a loot at their 38th instalment, where Donald Cerrone challenged Jamie Varner for the Lightweight title.
The broadcast began in the featherweight division as Jose Aldo faced Rolando Perez.
Both of these guys were lightning fast with their strikes and kicks, with Aldo just edging it in the speed stakes.
So when it looked like it could go either way Perez went for a left, only for Aldo co connect with a knee to the chin that sent Perez down.
Aldo went down for a few more strikes before the referee stepped in to give Aldo the TKO win.
Then it was up to welterweight as Danillo Villefort took on Mike Campbell.
This was a great back and forth battle. After a brief feeling out period Campbell scored with the take down. Villefort countered with the rubber guard so Campbell picked him and slammed him down.
Villefort came back with some nice ground work, going for a couple of leg locks. The fight then went up and down before finally returning to the ground, where Villefort took control, took Campbell’s back and secured the ground and pound TKO win.
Bantamweight action followed as Scott Jorgensen went up against Frank Gomez.
Gomez began his night with a couple of kicks, which Jorgensen countered with a take down. He immediately went for a guillotine, switching it to a power guillotine before Gomez succumbed to the inevitable.
Then it was on to the big rematch in the featherweight division as Urijah Faber faced Jens Pulver.
This was another step on Pulver’s downward spiral. Little Evil began with a take down but Faber quickly got back to his feet.
Seconds later Faber connected with a left to the body that rocked Pulver. Faber went in for the kill, eventually taking the fight down and synching in a guillotine for the submission win, handing Pulver his third successive defeat.
The main event saw Donald Cerrone challenge Jamie Varner for the Lightweight title.
This was one of the best spirited fights I’ve ever seen. These two showed each other a tremendous amount of respect, but that didn’t stop them from having a great battle.
For just over four rounds we saw an exciting back and forth battle. Each man had their moments. Varner put on a great display of ground and pound and striking, while Cerrone’s ground work and kicks looked lethal.
But in the early stages of the fifth Cerrone caught Varner with a knee to the head while the champion was still grounded.
With the blow ruled an unintentional foul, and with Varner unable to continued it went to the scorecards, with Varner taking the win by technical split decision. An unfortunate ending to what was a great fight.
In conclusion – out of the three WEC shows I’ve seen this has been the best of the bunch.
There was plenty of great action on offer here, with Faber’s destruction of Pulver the highlight of the night for me, although the Varner/Cerrone encounter would have edged it had it not been for the early ending.
So in all WEC 38 gets the thumbs up from me. But don’t worry if you live in Britain and you haven’t seen this one yet, because it will definitely be repeated soon.
