Here’s a fun game to play: with the WEC/UFC merger and the overlap of fighters, there will obviously be some 155 pounders without a job real soon. Let’s predict where certain WEC lightweight fighters will be in a year based on their WEC 53 performances.
- Kamal Shalorus – If he can squeak by with another win, he just might find himself in the Octagon swinging wild punches in a dark prelim match.
- Bart Palaszewski – Working a double-shift at his family’s kielbasa factory in Chicago, reminiscing about the good old days.
- Shane Roller – Facing someone like Joe Stevenson or Mac Danzig, with the presumption that Stevenson or Danzig need any easy win on some SpikeTV-broadcast undercard bout.
- Jamie Varner – Breakdancing on a flattened-out piece of cardboard in downtown Phoenix.
- Donald Cerrone – Battling furiously against Kenny Florian for top good-fighter-but-not-quite-champion-level status.
- Chris Horodecki – A part-time motivational speaker, sweating profusely and living in a van down by the river.
- Zhang Tie Quan – If the UFC still wants to break into the Chinese market, he’ll be fighting cans. If the UFC gives up on their Asian expansion ideas, Quan will be working a station at the Bellagio buffet.
- Ben Henderson – Giving Evan Dunham, Sean Sherk, Edson Barbosa and Charles Oliveira fits.
- Anthony Pettis – Reveling in the residual glory of his Matrix-like kick from WEC 53… and sad, because no matter he did, Frankie Edgar still kicked his ass.