On the Eve of the WEC's Swan Song, a Fond Look Back

After nine years, it all comes to an end.  Tonight’s WEC 53: “Henderson vs. Pettis” marks the final World Extreme Cagefighting event ever, with the Zuffa-owned promotion folding into the UFC and dozens of lighter-weight fighters wondering if they’re going to have a job in the coming months.  But now is not the time for pondering such employment issues.  Now is the time for nostalgia, for a trip down memory lane and a fond look back.  Granted, as MMA Journalist is an East Coast-based blog and I’ve never seen a live WEC event in person (the first WEC I saw was broadcast on Versus), this collection might be a bit esoteric… but hey, the last WEC ever, man.  Just go with it.

• WEC 30: “McCullough vs. Crunkilton”, September 5, 2007 – “Razor” Rob McCullough out-struck Rich Crunkilton to defend his 155-pound belt and Chase Beebe nullified the jiu-jitsu of Rani Yahya to keep his bantamweight strap, but what sticks out the most about this night was the debut of my new television, a 52-inch Sony XBR LCD.  As our prior TV set was a 13-inch black and white Panasonic we found discarded on the sidewalk, this was indeed a step up.
• WEC 36: “Faber vs. Brown”, November 5, 2008 – At the time it was considered an upset when Mike Brown TKO’d Urijah Faber and Leonard Garcia abruptly clobbered Jens Pulver.  However, the only thing I was considering was the food being served at Phillipe Nover’s TUF 8 viewing party, a season he figured prominently in.  As this WEC event was broadcast on a Wednesday night and preceded The Ultimate Fighter on SpikeTV, all of us at the recreation center in Brooklyn for Nover’s gathering watched it on the multitude of TVs while we drank and ate.  Mmmm, chicken tenders.
• WEC 51: “Aldo vs. Gamburyan”, September 30, 2010 – Yeah, yeah, Jose Aldo is a dominant champ.  The best part of this event was my 2-year-old daughter, who walked into the living room, saw what I was watching, then took a running jump onto me exclaiming, “Dad, let’s wrestle!”
• WEC 52: “Faber vs. Mizugaki”, November 11, 2010 – This time my daughter waited until I was walking into the kitchen, where she ambushed me with a kick to the shin and a flurry of punches to my thighs.  “Dad, let’s fight!” she said.
• WEC 45: “Cerrone vs. Ratcliff”, December 19, 2009 – Not a lot of star power on this card, but what made this installment memorable for me was the realization that I can watch an entire event on fast-forward and still get the gist of it.  DVR, that’s what’s up.