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Here are the official weigh-in results, betting odds and my predictions for tomorrow’s WEC 48 event on Pay-Per-View. The card will take place at the Arco Arena in Sacramento and will feature two preliminary bouts airing on Spike TV.

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Saturday night’s WEC event at the Nationwide Arena in Columbus Ohio had an attendance of 8,345. That’s the fifth largest attendance in World Extreme Cagefighting history and will result in a return to Ohio in 2011.

As far as fight night bonuses, $10,000 each was awarded to: Anthony Pettis, Joseph Benavidez, Leonard Garcia and George Roop.

Pettis earned his bonus for his head-kick knockout of Danny Castillo in the first round of their lightweight contest.

Joseph Benavidez earned submission of the night for his second round submission of former bantamweight champion Miguel Torres. It probably helped his cause that he submitted Torres because Scott Jorgensen also had a strong candidate for the bonus with his guillotine of Chad George.

The fight of the night was the only bonus winner not to air on television. George Roop took the fight with Leonard Garcia on short notice and if not for a point deduction for a low blow, would have won a decision. He instead walked away with a draw and both men got an extra $10,000.

If they had given a bonus for promo of the night, Jens Pulver would’ve won it hands down.

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Skip Intro
I did one for TNA iMPACT the other day and now I’m going to do one for a promotion that I actually enjoy. This is WEC 47 ‘Bowles Vs. Cruz’ which takes place tonight at the Nationwide Arena in Columbus, Ohio.

I don’t necessarily talk a lot of holds or things like that, more like offer a general comment on things as they proceed. I’ll be posting preliminary results throughout the evening but the real fun begins with the live Versus telecast at 10:00 PM ET.

I invite comments and discussion throughout the event but that requires you to register for a free Random Catastrophe account. Registered users can also vote in our main event poll below.

As a reminder you need to refresh your browser for all of the latest updates.

WEC 47 'Bowles Vs. Cruz' Quick Results

Match	Class	Winner	Loser	Method	Round	Time
#1	Lightweight	Ricardo Lamas	Bendy Casimir	Knockout	1	3:43
#2	Featherweight	Fredson Paixao	Courtney Buck	Submission/Rear-Naked Choke	1	2:39
#3	Featherweight	Leonard Garcia	George Roop	Split Draw/29-27, 27-29, 28-28	3	5:00
#4	Lightweight	Anthony Pettis	Danny Castillo	Knockout/Head kick	1	2:17
#5	Featherweight	Chad Mendes	Erik Koch	Unanimous Decision/30-27, 30-27, 30-27	3	5:00
#6	Bantamweight	Scott Jorgensen	Chad George	Submission/Guillotine Choke	1	0:31
#7	Lightweight	Bart Palaszewski	Karen Darabedyan	Submission/Armbar	1	4:40
#8	Featherweight	L.C. Davis	Deividas Taurosevicius	Majority Decision/29-29, 29-28, 29-28	3	5:00
#9	Featherweight	Javier Vazquez	Jens Pulver	Submission/Armbar	1	3:41
#10	Bantamweight	Joseph Benavidez	Miguel Torres	Submission/Guillotine Choke	2	2:57
#11	WEC Bantamweight Championship	Dominick Cruz	Brian Bowles	TKO/Doctor Stoppage	2	5:00

Well, the preliminary card is in the books. I’m 3-2-1 in my Predictions which isn’t good but I’ll take it since I haven’t made picks in so long I can’t remember the last ones I made.

I’m sorry but I could swear I just heard Todd Harris welcome all “flight fans” to the show tonight. He’s joined by Stephan Bonnar because Frank Mir is training for his next fight.

WEC should have a battle royal featuring: Karen Darabedyan, Bart Palaszewski, Deividas Taurosevicius and Kamal Shalorus. I’m sure we can find some other impossible names to toss in as well.

Joe Martinez is a tremendous ring announcer. Crowd seems hot tonight at least so far.

R1: Bart has 45 pro fights and he’s only 26, that’s impressive. Karen lands some big punches, nice combinations with featuring a hard right. Bart manages to survive. Bart has a shoulderlock but it isn’t really much. Palaszewski lands a couple of up-kicks. Palaszewski goes to closed guard, Darabedyan trying to posture up and he starts to unleash some shots. Ref asks them to continue to work which uh, kind of doesn’t make sense as that’s what they were doing. Karen lands some nice punches and elbows. However, Palaszewski reverses his fortunes as he grabs an armbar and Karen is forced to tap.

Palaszewski snatches victory from the jaws of defeat as I thought he was in trouble. But the fight ain’t over until the fight’s over.

Winner: Bart Palaszewski - 4:40 R1 (Submission/Armbar)

Two wins in a row now for Palaszewski.

Todd Harris just called Brandon Vera Vs. Jon Jones a dynamic lightweight fight. Well, it is at least a fight. I’m not sure about dynamic but I’m positive it won’t be at lightweight.

I’m excited for both UFC on Versus 1 and UFC 111 later this month.

I love Ben Stein! Although I really doubt that Ben Stein really needs to do frequent credit checks.

After the scrabble game that was the last fight, I’ve decided that L.C. Davis is my favorite fighter in WEC. Davis is…a brawler, that’s it. At least he’s not the Brooklyn Brawler I suppose.

R1: Slow start before DT lands a couple of nice kicks. Davis defends against a takedown. They clinch up and take turns trying to push each other against the cage. The ref calls for a separation but it doesn’t last long before they’re clinched up once more. They’re both just kinda trading knees with about a minute left. If you love clinch-work you’re probably enjoying this more than most. They just keep taking turns turning each other around. Crowd does some light booing. LC defends against another takedown attempt near the end of the round. This was kind of a dead even round as far as I’m concerned. Score: 10-10

R2: It feels weird not to be commenting on this fight on twitter. Bonnar gave R1 slightly to LC. DT shoots quickly but Davis refuses to go down, impressive defense. A bit quicker pace than in round one. Finally, DT gets the takedown but he worked really hard for it and Bonnar questions whether it was even worth it. Davis is able to get up and the ref asks for more work. LC takes a knee somewhere close to the center of the universe but the ref doesn’t stop it. LC gets DT up against the cage once more. I feel like we’ve been here before. Davis again saying he got struck low but the ref didn’t see it. This guy must be trying to applyfor a WWE job. Ref stands them up again and moves them to center. We’ve got a bodylock up against the cage…again, its like the cage is magnetic or something. Another tough round to score. I think DT will probably get it on your typical judges scorecard because he got the takedown but that doesn’t necessarily mean it is the right score just that most judges are stupid.

Replay shows the knee landing where it counts you know, the one the ref missed.

R3: They exchange right hands to start the third. Both fighters probably need to win this round to win the fight. They go back to the clinch because that’s what they like. DT lands a knee to the side of the head of LC. I’m not going to say this fight is bad it just isn’t what I expected going in. Perhaps I’m being super-generous tonight, tough to say. The ref calls for the separation and moves them back to the center of the cage. Davis shoots in and he scores the takedown. Ref calls for more work and then stands them up. 40 seconds left and there’s a whole bunch of not much that happens to finish the round. I’ve got this fight a 29-29 draw. Pretty much a fight between two even guys although I’m probably not going to complain much regardless of the decision as a close fight can end up with pretty much any score. Ok, 30-27 for Taurosevicius would have been stupid.

Winner: L.C. Davis - 5:00 R3 (Majority Decision/29-29, 29-28, 29-28)

Wow, Jeff Blatnick was one of the judges and even more strange, he and I scored the fight the same.

Ok, as much as I want to see Jose Aldo Vs. Urijah Faber I’m not sure that a $44.95 pricetag for that PPV is the smartest idea. Also having Cerrone Vs. Henderson in a rematch doesn’t hurt.

Harris interviews Donald Cerrone and Urijah Faber. Faber seemed kinda of out of it in his interview.

I follow both @JavierShowtime and @Jens_Pulver on twitter. I like both guys but I’m such a big fan of Pulver that I can’t even pretend that I’m not pulling for him tonight.

R1: Crowd way behind Pulver during intros. Rich Franklin‘s brother is the referee tonight. “Pulver” chant starts out when the fight begins. Vazquez almost ducks right in to a kick. Jens has a guillotine but Vazquez gets his arm in and is able to escape. The building might’ve exploded if Jens had submitted him. Vazquez almost has a mount but Jens is able to reverse. Vazquez is able to use some nice jiu-jitsu and he gets a side-mount crucifix and takes some shots. Pulver gives up the back but still controls the left arm. Vazquez is able to move to full mount and he hooks an armbar and that’s all she wrote. Jens left his arm open and that was just asking for trouble.

That was…deflating.

Crowd still chanting for Jens.

Winner: Javier Vazquez - 3:41 R1 (Submission/Armbar)

Javier puts over Jens strong in the interview. Still, this is kind of depressing but the crowd still loves him. Jens said the fight before his put everyone to sleep, he’s showing good sense of humor. He starts to cry and thank everyone. He says he loves the fans too much to put them through this again. He won’t say he’s retiring but he thanks his family and Dana White. One thing about Jens is that not for one second do you ever think he’s not being sincere.

We’re getting a dark match next.

R1: Chad George shoots in and lands in a guillotine and that’s a quick one for Jorgensen.

Winner: Scott Jorgensen - 0:31 R1 (Submission/Guillotine)

Jorgensen has now won 3 in a row and is 5-2 in WEC. His loss to Antonio Banuelos was very close as well, he could easily be 6-1. In other words, if I bring back my Power Rankings for UFC/WEC, it won’t take me long to get to him in the list of Bantamweight contenders.

R1: A pretty good first round. They exchanged on the feet for a bit, Benavidez landed a nice right, caught a Torres kick and later got him to the ground where he pretty well controlled the fight. I give it to Benavidez 10-9. The brevity of my remarks is due to preparing food not disinterest in the fight.
R2: Torres lands his jabs more effectively in the second round, kind of trying to pick him apart. Benavidez is able to secure another takedown. Torres has a bad cut on his forehead and Benavidez is able to lock in a guillotine and gets Torres to tap. It was an elbow from inside the guard that cut him open.

Winner: Joseph Benavidez - 2:57 R2 (Submission/Guillotine)

Benavidez is asked what his corner told him between the two first rounds. You can only have one first round in a fight, Todd. This man needs to be stopped.

Another Dark fight is going to be shown before the main event.

R1: Exchange on the feet, Pettis goes for a right but Castillo with the double leg. Pettis lands some upkicks to give Castillo pause about rushing in. They clinch and Castillo lands a low knee and the ref calls for time. Quick break and back to action. Pettis lands a right hand and a booming left kick to the side of the head. A couple of punches on the ground and it is stopped. But Castillo was done before he hit the ground. Big kick from Anthony Cro Cop! Ok, that might be a bit overdone.

Winner: Anthony Pettis - 2:17 R1 (KO/Head-kick)

R1: A fun first round with both guys trading some serious shots at different times throughout the round. I’ve got to give it to Cruz 10-9.

R2: Cruz showing a lot of movement in this round. He landed a lot of nice kicks and did a good job – for the most part – of avoiding big shots from Bowles. A takedown from Cruz late in the round was just a capper. 10-9 for Cruz.

It really doesn’t matter because after the commercial, we find that Bowles has been ruled unable to continue by the attending physician.

Nothing like crowning a new champion during a commercial break.

Winner: Dominick Cruz - 5:00 R2 (TKO/Doctor Stoppage)

Official word is a broken hand for Bowles.

Cruz says that the belt is heavy. Bowles says that he broke his hand on the first punch of the fight.

This show seemed cursed after the Pulver fight deflated the crowd. I don’t think it really ever recovered after he lost. The crowd tried but it just wasn’t to be. Some booing after the main event ended but what are you gonna do? I had Cruz ahead anyway so he definitely deserved the belt regardless of how he got it.

Thanks for checking in, we’ll do it again soon.

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I haven’t really written about MMA in three months. So as I kind of wade back in to it, I’m going to start small. How big it gets will depend entirely on my mood. Still, I’ve decided to provide the weigh-in results, betting odds and my quick picks for WEC 47 which takes place tomorrow at the Nationwide Arena in Columbus, Ohio.

Weights are in Parenthesis and odds are in brackets.

Preliminary Card

1. Bantamweight – Chad George (135.5) [+450] Vs. Scott Jorgensen (135) [-650]
   Winner: Scott Jorgensen
2. Featherweight – Chad Mendes (145) [-325] Vs. Erik Koch (144) [+250]
   Winner: Chad Mendes
3. Lightweight – Anthony Pettis (154.5) [+155] Vs. Danny Castillo (155.5) [-185]
   Winner: Danny Castillo
4. Featherweight – George Roop (145.5) [+350] Vs. Leonard Garcia (145) [-525]
   Winner: Leonard Garcia
5. Featherweight – Fredson Paixao (144.5) [-340] Vs. Courtney Buck (145) [+260]
   Winner: Fredson Paixao
6. Lightweight – Ricardo Lamas (155) [-250] Vs. Bendy Casimir (155.5) [+190]
   Winner: Bendy Casimir

Televised Bouts

7. Lightweight – Karen Darabedyan (156) [-275] Vs. Bart Palaszewski (155) [+215]
   Winner: Karen Darabedyan
8. Featherweight – Deividas Taurosevicius (145) [-125] Vs. L.C. Davis (144.5) [-105]
   Winner: Deividas Taurosevicius
9. Bantamweight – Miguel Torres (134.5) [-365] Vs. Joseph Benavidez (135) [+285]
   Winner: Miguel Torres
10. Featherweight – Javier Vazquez (145) [-185] Vs. Jens Pulver (145.5) [+150]
    Winner: Javier Vazquez
11. WEC Bantamweight Championship – Brian Bowles (134.5) [-250] Vs. Dominick Cruz (134) [+190]
    Winner: Brian Bowles

I like this card, there’s a lot of intriguing fights. While I’m picking Vazquez, I’ll be cheering for Pulver and will be so happy if I’m wrong. Bowles Vs. Cruz should be good and so should Benavidez Vs. Torres. This has the makings of yet another strong show from WEC!

*Bout order is not reflected.