WEC 46: 'Varner vs Henderson' announced for Arco Arena on Jan. 10
by Adam Wagner on Nov 2, 2009 8:07 PM EST
25 comments
World Extreme Cagefighting (WEC) today announced its first show of the New Year, which will feature the return of Jamie Varner, defending his lightweight belt against 155-pound interim champion, Benson "Smooth" Henderson, in the main event of the evening.
WEC 46: "Varner vs. Henderson" is scheduled for the Arco Arena in Sacramento, Calif., on Jan. 10, 2010.
It's a venue with which the promotion is extremely familiar thanks in larger part to former featherweight champion and local fan favorite, Urijah Faber. "The California Kid," who is also coming back from a hand injury like Varner, will collide with top-ranked contender, Raphael Assuncao, in the co-featured fight of the night.
The line up thus far is one that WEC General Manager, Reed Harris, is thrilled to promote.
Here's a snip:
"ARCO Arena is one of our favorite venues to bring fights, the fans in Sacramento are some of the best. The world title bout between Varner and Henderson is a perfect way to start off the New Year. The title fight, plus the return of Urijah, makes this an instant winter classic."
Henderson (10-1) defeated Donald "Cowboy" Cerrone at WEC 43 via razor-thin unanimous decision to successfully capture the interim gold. "Smooth" avoided countless submission attempts from Cerrone, while inflicting good damage in the early rounds. The victory was a large upset, introducing the relatively unknown Henderson to the fans of the sport.
A product of Arizona’s MMA Lab, Henderson has managed to string together nine straight victories since his only loss, which was to Chad Klingensmith at Ring of Fire 27: "Collision Course" in Dec. 2006. He is perfect (3-0) in the WEC with victories over Shane Roller, Anthony Njokuani and Cerrone.
Varner (16-2) gained the lightweight belt back in 2006 when he defeated "Razor" Rob McCullough via technical knockout. "C-4" has gone on to defend his belt twice with victories over Marcus Hicks and Donald Cerrone.
Varner has been sidelined for some time now because of injuries he sustained during the battle at WEC 38 in earlier this year January against Cerrone. One year later, Varner will finally be able to put his belt on the line again, hoping to defend it for a third time.
Stay tuned to MMAmania.com for breaking news and updates on WEC 46.
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BENDO’s GETTING KTFO! Varner is a class above him. Better striking, wrestling, and sub defense might just go to henderson but does that really matter in this fight. Varner’s got some dynamite in his hands and he’s going to use it!!
WAR VARNER!!!!!! only fan on this site!!!!
by Jared on Nov 2, 2009 8:40 PM EST up reply actions 0 recs
you’re not the only one jared!
lets go varner!
by AzCombat on Nov 3, 2009 3:19 AM EST up reply actions 0 recs
Good fighter but Varner is a crybaby who lives through Cerrone.
by NameNotRequired on Nov 3, 2009 8:41 AM EST up reply actions 0 recs
Wouldn’t say I am on the war wagon, but I suppose I’m a Varner fan. I like him just not one of my favorites. Now that Cowboy is on a lose streak, Varner will shine. Most of the mouth running has been done by Cerrone. He even goes around with his little thug sidekick trying to jump Varner. Varner took some time off for injury just like anyone else would have. Few top fighters have not been sidelined at some point due to injury. Now that he is back he will keep his belt. And Cowboy will have to earn a title shot with at least one good win.
by wAyNe on Nov 3, 2009 9:31 AM EST up reply actions 0 recs
uhh that is comcast’s fault, not DirecTV’s. comcast owns Versus and raised the cost of the channel a considerable amount in an attempt to get DTV to drop it. comcast is pretty much the devil.
by kitsunex on Nov 2, 2009 9:03 PM EST up reply actions 0 recs
oh that totally makes sense. raise the price and get the station dropped. that way you have less viewers and have to charge less for your advertising spots.
less viewers? check. less revenue coming in? check. now that’s how you run a company.
your insights are pure genius kitsunex. pure genius.
by jj on Nov 2, 2009 9:31 PM EST up reply actions 0 recs
Everything’s the debil to you Kitsunex! Well I like MMA, and I’m gonna watch it. And I like Comcast and they show me boobies and I like them too.
by PW on Nov 3, 2009 9:47 AM EST up reply actions 0 recs
Agreed!!! It is BS that they dropped Vs. Wish I could cancel the 23 months I have left! :(
by Jay on Nov 9, 2009 2:49 PM EST up reply actions 0 recs
faber henderson(i still say cerrone won that fight but oh well )
by tz swanger on Nov 2, 2009 8:31 PM EST reply actions 0 recs
he finally managed to find a douche strong enough to remove all that sand from his vagina.
by kitsunex on Nov 2, 2009 9:03 PM EST up reply actions 0 recs
Yeah but he’s still in the ER. They’re hoping he’ll be ready in time, but he won’t.
by jj on Nov 2, 2009 9:26 PM EST up reply actions 0 recs
Sweet, we get to see a fight between two little girls that lost a fight yet were handed a gift wrapped decision and title belt. yay!
by jj on Nov 2, 2009 9:26 PM EST reply actions 0 recs
How did Cerrone beat Varner? Jamie may have bitched out but he was still winning the fight with ease, if anything that was the most annoying thing because instead of gutting it out en route to a UD Jamie quit early and took loads of time off.
As for Smooth the last thing you can say about him is that he’s a little girl, he may not have deserved the Cerrone decision but he gave Donald a good fight and gutted it out when he was in a lot of pain and actually collapsed after the fight, yet he’s ready to compete after a much shorter layoff than Varner. You may not want to see this fight but I damn sure do.
by David W-S on Nov 2, 2009 9:33 PM EST up reply actions 0 recs
Yup varner would have won a decision regardless.
As for ben, I think he won, 1st rd was all cerrones with the sub attempts, until the 3rd min when ben was pounding on him.
I think he definately stole the rd. Great fight I thought.
That being said I hope smooth takes the w.
by phenomenal angel on Nov 2, 2009 11:36 PM EST up reply actions 0 recs
Agreed. Ben beat Cerrone because he came back and stole the 1st, and Varner was beating Don, too. But because Varner took the easy way out, and Henderson seems devoid of “quit”, I gotta give the edge to Benson in this one.
As a side note, why can’t the WEC have a free fight night every month? The UFC can host 20 PPVs a year, but the WEC can only put on 4 live shows? Ridiculous. Hire more talent, people.
by just some dong on Nov 3, 2009 2:27 AM EST up reply actions 0 recs
Henderson is no lil girl.. he put a beating on cowboy for 3 rounds, then donald woke up and won the next 2 rounds. Wouldnt exactly call that gift wrapped!
Varner on the other hand may be tough but acts like a lil girl!
Saying that ill still take varner in the fight.. They both have good wrestling but i think varner’s hands are going to be the difference!
by ItsNormlToSmokePot on Nov 2, 2009 9:36 PM EST up reply actions 0 recs
put a beating on him for three rounds? what fight were you watching? that was modified dry humping for three rounds. put a beating on him, ha please!
by jj on Nov 2, 2009 11:59 PM EST up reply actions 0 recs
It was a close fight, but Ben was landing huge punches to Cerrone’s face, over and over again. Mostly while Don was planted on his back. And seemingly helpless.
by just some dong on Nov 3, 2009 2:32 AM EST up reply actions 0 recs
Good fight, hopefully Smooth can shock the world again even if he did get a lucky decision over Cowboy as he seems like a nice guy and is a talented fighter. I’d much rather see Smooth as champion than Varner, after the state Ben was in after the Cerrone fight it shows how much heart and grit he has to come back soon for a title fight, while Varner has been out for ages because of a broken hand. Funny that Faber, who had much worse damage done to his hands in his fight against MTB is back on the same show, that’s why people like Faber and Smooth and hate Varner, all 3 are talented but only the former 2 have heart and are genuine warriors.
by David W-S on Nov 2, 2009 9:30 PM EST reply actions 0 recs
lil nog vs luis cane is official for 106
by See What Had Happend Was !!!! on Nov 2, 2009 11:08 PM EST reply actions 0 recs
this is bullshit. this was supposed to be in arizona and it makes perfect sense for it to be. they’re just doing it for their poster boy urijah. i’m pretty mad.
by AzCombat on Nov 3, 2009 3:15 AM EST reply actions 0 recs
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