According to multiple sources, and finally Dana White’s twitter account, Dominick Cruz has torn his ACL and is forced to withdraw from his scheduled UFC 148 fight with Urijah Faber.

For a short fight, it was awesome. The ending was great, but not for Urijah Faber. Mike Brown scored a takedown, Faber got back up and was in awkward position with his back towards Brown. Faber tried to throw a good backwards elbow, and almost connected, but his chin ran into Mike Browns right fist. Urijah Faber fell to the ground and turtled up, and Mike Brown capitalized by landing a million punches to Fabers dome before the referee stopped the fight. Mike Brown is the new WEC Featherweight Champ.

WECâ„¢ INVADES FLORIDA FOR THE FIRST TIME

URIJAH FABER vs. MIKE BROWN
PAULO FILHO vs. CHAEL SONNEN

WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 10, 2008 LIVE FROM THE SEMINOLE HARD ROCK HOTEL & CASINO IN HOLLYWOOD, FL

LIVE ON VERSUS 9 P.M. ET/6 P.M. PT

Tickets Go on Sale Monday, July 21 at Noon

Las Vegas –World Extreme Cagefighting® (WEC™) announced today that two world titles will be on the line on Wednesday, September 10th when the organization makes its initial foray into the great state of Florida. In the main event, WEC Featherweight Champion “The California Kid” Urijah Faber defends his title against Florida’s own Mike Brown, and in the co-featured bout, WEC Middleweight Champion Paulo “Eli” Filho returns to action to battle Chael Sonnen in their highly anticipated rematch. This championship doubleheader will take place at the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino in Hollywood, Florida.

WEC: FABER vs. BROWN will be televised live nationally on VERSUS beginning at 9:00 pm ET/6:00 pm PT. All live WEC events will be presented in Hi-Definition (HD) and SAP where available. For more information and how to find VERSUS in your local viewing area, visit http://www.versus.com/findversus.

Tickets for WEC: FABER vs. BROWN go on sale Monday, July 21 at noon and are priced at $175, $125, $100, and $50 (not including applicable services or taxes). Tickets are available at the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino box office and all Ticketmaster locations. To charge by phone with a major credit card, call Ticketmaster at (954) 523-3309. Tickets also are available online through www.wec.tv or www.ticketmaster.com.

With technique, tenacity, and charisma, “The California Kid” Urijah Faber (21-1), has proven time and time again why he is considered one of the best fighters in MMA today. Faber captured the WEC title in March of 2006 with a decisive second round stoppage of Cole Escovedo. Since then, he has continued to dominate the division, defending his crown with first round wins over Joe Pearson, Dominic Cruz, and Chance Farrar. His most recent victory came in the long-awaited superfight against Jens Pulver, where he displayed top notch striking and a champion’s heart in defeating the future Hall of Famer by unanimous decision in front 12,000 fans. But there is no rest for the man on top of the heap, and on September 10, he will return to fight one of his toughest opponents yet in Florida’s own Mike Brown.

Mike Brown (19-4) has compiled an impressive MMA record over his seven year pro career, and his aggressive style in the cage has earned him a large fan following. In his most recent bout on June 1st, the well-rounded American Top Team fighter earned a title shot with an exciting three round win over a game Jeff Curran, and he is undoubtedly going to have a hometown crowd in his corner when he challenges Faber for supremacy at 145 pounds. Brown fights out of Coconut Creek, Florida where he earned his reputation as a top ranked 145 lb. fighter.

Considered by many to be the premier middleweight fighter in the world today, WEC Champion Paulo ‘Eli’ Filho (16-0) has fought the best that the 185-pound division has to offer, both here and abroad, and he has yet to taste defeat. In 2007, Filho made his WEC debut in stirring fashion, stopping Joe Doerksen in the first round to win the organization title. He was pushed to the limit in his first title defense last December though, when Chael Sonnen got him in trouble early and dominated the first round. In the second round, Filho rebounded, catching Sonnen in an armbar with only seconds to go in the frame. And while there was some controversy over whether Sonnen verbally submitted or not, the fight was halted with five seconds left in the round and Filho retained his crown. Yet like a true champion, Filho respected the challenger’s performance and didn’t want his victory to have any question marks surrounding it, so he granted Sonnen a rematch.

Chael Sonnen (21-9-1) left quite an impression in his WEC debut last December with his stellar performance against Filho. But this six-year MMA veteran is no stranger to competing at the top levels of the sport, having beaten world-class fighters such as Jason Miller, Jason Lambert, Trevor Prangley, and Amar Suloev. Now approaching his prime as a fighter at 31, Sonnen plans on bringing the belt home in his second shot on September 10.

The remaining bouts for WEC: FABER vs. BROWN will be announced in the near future. All bouts subject to change.

FIGHTERS INCLUDE BJ PENN, MICHAEL BISPING, URIJAH FABER, CARLOS CONDIT

Las Vegas, NV – In late June, the Ultimate Fighting Championship® (UFC®) organization and World Extreme Cagefighting® (WEC™) will send UFC and WEC superstars BJ Penn, Michael Bisping, Urijah Faber, and Carlos Condit across the globe to meet and greet the troops of the United States Military stationed in Afghanistan. The fighters will have the honor of visiting with various units during this trip, and Penn, Bisping, Faber, and Condit will tour a total of six military bases.

“We are honored to send UFC and WEC fighters to visit the men and women of the United States Military,” said UFC President Dana White. “We are pleased to be giving back to such a great cause; many of our fighters have served in the military and understand what a great contribution our troops are making overseas.”

“The U.S. Military admires the sport of mixed martial arts. We will be pleased to welcome UFC and WEC legends to our bases in Afghanistan. Their presence will certainly help boost the morale of the soldiers which is so important during their duties overseas,” said Special Sergeant Bart Murphy of the 101st Airborne Division.

Both the UFC and WEC have a strong commitment to the men and women of the armed forces. On December 13, 2006 the UFC held a spectacular event at Miramar Marine Corps Air Station in front of 3,000 soldiers. The organization also has a long running agreement with the Armed Forces Network and consistently visits the troops at various bases across the United States.

The UFC and WEC will provide more information following this military tour.

This was really a good show, and Urijah Faber had a dominant 5-round performance against a very worthy Jens Pulver. Both fighters kicked much ass and showed a lot of heart, but Urijah Faber definitely did the most damage, and surprised Jens Pulver with some great striking skills. Not many people were expecting to see Faber come out and throw strikes like he did. Jens Pulver looked like he might have had a broken orbital bone on his left eye, homeboy was looking rough after the fight.

Miguel Torres and Yoshiro Maeda had a great fight also. Maeda put up a good fight and was able to survive through 3 rounds before the fight was stopped by the doctor. Maeda’s right eye had completely closed and he was getting picked off by the left hand of Miguel Torres, because he was unable to see punches coming.

Official WEC Results
-Urijah Faber def. Jens Pulver by Unanimous Decision, R5
-Miguel Torres def. Yoshiro Maeda by TKO (Injury Stoppage) at 5:00, R3
-Mark Munoz def. Chuck Grigsby by TKO (Strikes) at 4:15, R1
-Rob McCullough def. Kenneth Alexander by Split Decision, R3
-Donald Cerrone def. Danny Castillo by Submission (Armbar) at 0:30, R1
-Mike Brown def. Jeff Curran by Unanimous Decision, R3
-Will Ribeiro def. Chase Beebe by Split Decision, R3
-Tim McKenzie def. Jeremy Lang by Submission (Guillotine Choke) at 0:40, R3
-Alex Serdyukov def. Luis Sapo by TKO at 5:00, R1
-Jose Aldo def. Alexandre Franca Nogueira by TKO at 3:22, R2
-Dominick Cruz def. Charlie Valencia by Unanimous Decision, R3

Curran Reflects on Faber, Sees A Threat In Mike Brown
05/05/2008
By Frank Curreri

It’s been nearly five months since his loss to Urijah Faber, but the sting of defeat still weighs on Jeff Curran’s mind. There has been plenty of second-guessing his decision making in the final 30 seconds of their fight, plenty of introspection about how he might have more aggressively pressured Faber while riding the champion’s back in the first round.

Curran doesn’t know if he’ll ever get another crack at the title. But he made one thing crystal clear to WEC matchmaker Scott Adams when they discussed who Curran’s next opponent should be.

“I told him, ‘I’m not fighting anybody with five or six fights and coming off a loss or two,’ Curran said. “I don’t need ‘builder’ fights. I need tough guys that are going to earn me another shot at the belt. I want to make sure the fights I take will go down in the books as contender-type fights.”

Weeks later Adams called Curran. How about Mike Brown?

“Perfect,” Curran said. “Anybody that beats this guy is the real deal. It’s a fight that you have to be motivated to train for. Coming off the fight with Urijah, if it had been some low-level guy I don’t think I would have been mentally motivated to train (hard) for it.”

For those who don’t know much about Mike Thomas Brown, well, he’s 18-4, a 145-pound slab of hulking muscle like Faber, has won six straight and owns wins over Yves Edwards and Mark Hominick. The Portland, Maine native has a bachelor’s degree in biology, trains with American Top Team and his MySpace profile is packed with pictures of him partying with friends and making weird faces.

This is Curran’s scouting report on the man he will face June 1 in Sacramento:

“I have been following Mike Brown for a long time. He’s a solid wrestler and he’s well-rounded. He works with American Top Team and his stand-up looks really clean; he looks like he throws hard punches. He looks like he’s going to be strong.”

In recent months, Curran had struck up a friendship with Marcelo Garcia, the famed Brazilian jiu-jitsu world champion and Abu Dhabi submission grappling king. Garcia trains with Brown, so he will temporarily suspend his collaboration with Curran. But before Curran learned he would be fighting Brown, he had trained with Garcia and picked his brain about a myriad of topics, including how to defend the guillotine choke Faber finished him with.

“We talked a lot about the fight,” said Curran (29-9-1). “I saw a chance in the last 50 seconds of the second round, even though I was cut, I thought, ‘Hey, why not push the pace, try to get back to my feet at least, pull something off. Maybe get a takedown, maybe tie him up, throw some knees, do some damage. Just something to show everybody I’m still in it and I’m not going anywhere.

“I didn’t for one second think I was in trouble or that I was in a bad spot. The worst spot I was in was that last 10 seconds where I got caught in that choke. So I spent a lot of time looking at that choke, how he took it and the angle that he took it and trying to come up with some solutions to that.

“In the first round, I felt stronger than him, I felt more technical than him on the ground. It’s just that he has great defense and he’s a scrapper. He’s unpredictable like that. Because of that I played it conservative myself. I wanted to make sure something freaky didn’t happen. It happened anyway. I’m a little upset at that decision, but other than that I have to look past it. It’s been eating me up ever since. If it’s meant to be for us to fight again then it’s going to come again.”

As for Faber’s mega-fight with Jens Pulver on June 1, Curran has mixed feelings about the outcome.

“I kind of see it as a 50-50, whoever puts the other person on their back probably has a better chance,” he said. “I don’t think that Urijah should stand with Jens, that would probably be a stupid move. But I think Urijah is capable enough to cause a threat in any area of the game for Jens. If somehow Urijah tags him and puts him on his back and Jens has to play his guard – Urijah has those elbows. And unless Jens has a really good guard and can attack from there then he’s going to probably wind up getting cut open. But if Jens puts Urijah on his back he’s going to be the stronger of the two for sure and will be able to probably bully him around a little bit. That’s how I see it.”

Curran, a 10-year veteran, says he still hungers to work his way back into title contention. He’s still only 30 and always improving.

“I think I’m a steppingstone for Mike Brown but he’s a steppingstone for me, too,” Curran said. “I think Urijah’s going to hold his seat at the top for awhile. If I can manage to work my way back, then great.”