Mike Brown upsets WEC featherweight champ Urijah Faber

Written by Jim Murphy   |   Wednesday, November 05 2008

Mike Brown is the new WEC champion after a shocking 1st round TKO of Urijah Faber in Hollywood, Florida

Frank Mir, in his role as WEC color commentator, had just made a case for Urijah Faber as the best "pound for pound" fighter in the world.  "He doesn't have any weaknesses" Mir claimed.  And while Faber is definitely one of the most talented, best conditioned and complete fighters in MMA he demonstrated that he was human in the main event of a WEC card held at the Seminole Hard Rock Casino in Hollywood, Florida.  He got careless, he got caught by veteran fighter and now Mike Brown is the WEC featherweight champion following his stunning TKO win over the heavily favored Faber.

The prefight buzz surrounded Faber's ability to deal with Brown's size and strength but when they met in the cage they looked to be roughly the same size.  Early on Brown had some trouble with Faber's speed.  "The California Kid" scored early on with some punches and kicks, but they didn't hurt his battle tested opponent.  Faber engaged him in a clinch and tried for one of his highlight reel slams, but quickly found that wasn't going to be possible with this opponent.  Brown responded by bulling Faber to the cage wall and trying for a takedown, Faber deftly reversed the attempt and landed a solid knee but appeared to slip in the process.  Brown then scored a takedown but Faber bounced right back up to carelessly rush at his opponent.  He was immediately met with a big punch and elbow strike combination and went down hard.  Brown took his back and mounted a "ground and pound" attack for a few moments before the referee stepped in and waved off the fight.

Brown was understandably emotional in his postfight interview, thanking his friends, family and training partners for helping him reach the culmination of "this long road."  For his part, Faber displayed his characteristic class and trademark carefree attitude in defeat as he congratulated Brown on the victory.  He made no excuses, saying that "he made a mistake" and Brown made him pay for it.  Noting that he's just "a happy guy who loves life" he assured the fans that he'd be back.  Hopefully Faber has learned that he needs to temper his cyclonic fight style against Brown and work his myriad skills into a more tactical and measured fight strategy.  If he's able to do this, a rematch with Brown could be a classic.

The semifinal bout between WEC middleweight champion Paulo Filho and Chael Sonnen, meanwhile, was anything but a classic.  Portland, OR area native and Team Quest representative Sonnen was already questioning Filho's professionalism before the fight as the champion missed badly in his attempt to make weight.  Filho came in 7 pound over the mandated 185 pound limit, and on his second try was still 5 pounds too heavy.  Sonnen readily accepted the fight despite the champion's failure to make weight and will receive a portion of Filho's purse.  Florida Athletic Commission rules, however, prohibited the fight from being for the championship.  Instead, the two men rematched Filho's controversial submission victory in a three round non-title affair.

Sonnen's critique of Filho's professionalism quickly proved to be well founded.  An obviously distracted Filho spent much of the fight on his back while Sonnen landed kicks to his legs.  In the 2nd round, Sonnen wised up and instead of engaging Filho when he flopped to the ground stepped away resulting in the referee standing them up.  While the fight was standing, Sonnen repeatedly scored with his jab--made easier by the fact that Filho showed little interest in fighting back.  As the fight progressed, Sonnen played it safe and stayed just out of range as he'd dart in to throw his jab and retreat.  He didn't want to risk a fluke submission loss to a Brazilian Jiu Jitsu specialist, but obviously his tactics combined with Filho's embarrassing lack of effort made for an awful fight.  The live crowd was already "anti-Filho" due to his failure to make weight, and the Brazilian was booed mercilessly during his ring walk and introduction.  It only got worse as he flopped and stalled his way through the third round of a fight that Sonnen won as much by default as anything else.  Commentator Mir had no explanation for Filho's behavior, suggesting that he must have "personal issues".  The entire scene was eerily reminiscent of boxer Oliver McCall's 1997 in-ring meltdown against Lennox Lewis as Filho continually looked toward someone or something at cageside while demonstrating no interest in competing.  Further validating Mir's theory that Filho had something wrong was the glaring lack of a postfight interview for Sonnen, suggesting that he may have been aware of his opponent's extraneous issues.  Sonnen won by unanimous decision with 30-27 scores across the board, and the judges were charitable to give Filho 9 points per round for his non-competitive performance.

Earlier in the card, which aired live on the "Versus" TV network in the US, Leonard Garcia put his past legal issues further behind him with a brutal beatdown of tough Jens Pulver.  "Lil' Evil" was never really in the fight, as Garcia tested his his highly regarded chin early and often.  A barrage of power shots just over a minute into the fight sent Pulver to his knees and Garcia was on him as he tried to get up.  He landed a few more uncontested shots before the referee called a stop to the proceedings, awarding Garcia a TKO victory.  While the victory itself can't be considered an upset, the decisive brutality and speed with which he destroyed a fighter with a reputation as one of the toughest in the sport was stunning.

In the opening bout of the live card, standout college wrestler Jake Rosholt used his takedown and groundfighting skills to pound out a 2nd round TKO win over a game opponent in Nissen Osterneck.  Osterneck had Rosholt in trouble several times and seriously exposed his standup defensive weaknesses.  To his credit, Rosholt demonstrated a lot of toughness and heart--as well as an impressive ability to take a punch--by fighting back and eventually prevailing in a fight that easily could have gone the other way.

WEC's next event will be on December 3rd from Las Vegas, headlined by a title clash between Bantamweight titleholder Miguel Torres and challenger Manny Tapia.  The event will also be the promotion's last with a light heavyweight and middleweight division.  Zuffa, LLC, owners of both the WEC and UFC, is dissolving these divisions to focus on the lighter weight classes.  According to Zuffa, some WEC fighters at light heavyweight and middleweight will transition into the UFC.

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