Twelve-fight International Fight League (IFL) veteran Bart "Bartimus" Palaszewski (30-11) will make his second appearance for the World Extreme Cagefighting (WEC) promotion against Richard "Cleat" Crunkilton (16-2) on March 1.
It's another explosive match up added to WEC 39, which is set to take place at the American Bank Center in Corpus Christi, Texas, and it could determine the number one contender in the lightweight division if for some reason Donald Cerrone is not granted and immediate rematch against division leader, Jamie Varner.
Palaszewski debuted for the promotion at WEC 37: "Torres vs. Tapia" in December, snuffing out UFC veteran Alex Karalexis via second round technical knockout. During his time with the IFL he scored notable wins over guys like Steve Bruno, Ivan Menjivar, Ryan Schultz, Harris Sarmiento and others.
However, his last three fights with the organization were all losses. He was submitted in the second round by Deividas Taurosevicius at the 2007 IFL Team Championships and then outpointed in a split decision loss to Chris Horodecki at the IFL World Grand Prix Semi Finals two months later.
He also dropped a unanimous decision to current UFC fighter Jim Miller last April in New Jersey.
Since the IFL went out of business last year, he's won back-to-back fights by technical knockout. He stopped Jeff Cox in the first round at the first Adrenaline MMA event last June and then toppled Karalexis in December.
Crunkilton has nine fights under his belt in the WEC, dating all the way back to WEC 3 in 2002. During that span he's only lost one fight, but it was a big one. He was handed a first round technical knockout loss in a title fight against "Razor" Rob McCullough at WEC 30 in September 2007.
His other career loss was a unanimous decision to Hermes Franca at UFC 42: "Sudden Impact" in April of 2003.
This is a great fight and some very solid matchmaking.
There are two title fights scheduled for WEC 39 in in Corpus Christi. In the main event, newly crowned featherweight champion Mike Thomas Brown will defend his strap for the first time against the hard hitting Leonard "Bad Boy" Garcia and in the co-main event Carlos "The Natural Born Killer" Condit will put his 170 pound gold on the line against Brock Larson for the second time.
Apparently, the WEC wants to make its debut in the "Lone Star State" a memorable one. Stay tuned for an announcement from MMAmania.com regarding the complete fight card for WEC 39 ... it's a good one.