A lightweight battle between former WEC lightweight number one contender Richard "Cleat" Crunkilton (16-2) and Dave Jansen (12-0) is being assembled for the WEC 43 card at the Covelli Center in Youngstown, Ohio on September 2 as reported by NWI.com.
"Cleat" will be making his third attempt at a return to the cage after being sidelined for the past 16 months due to injuries. He was first scheduled to square off against former International Fight League standout Bart Palaszewski at WEC 39 but had to bow out with a knee injury. And again he was forced to withdraw from a high profile fight on the WEC 41 card against the current division number one contender Donald "Cowboy" Cerrone three months later.
The American Kickboxing Academy product has competed nine times under the WEC banner thus far in his career, compiling a record of 8-1. The lone loss came at WEC 30 in September of 2007 by first round technical knockout at the hands of "Razor" Rob McCullough -- the reigning champion at the time. He did go on to beat Sergio Gomez with a unanimous decision six months later at WEC 33, but has not fought since then.
Jansen, on the other hand, has been super busy since making his professional debut in January of 2007. In fact, the undefeated Team Quest trainee has already competed four times in 2009, including his most recent first round submission win over Amirkhan Mazihov on the M-1 Challenge 14 card in Korea on the 4th of July.
This fight will be his debut under the WEC banner and a rather big step up in competition. He appears to be up to the challenge though and brings a strong submission game to the table, having forced seven of his twelve victims to tapout.
WEC 43 will be headlined by an interim lightweight championship fight between Donald "Cowboy" Cerrone and Ben "Smooth" Henderson. A bantamweight bout between Damacio "The Angel of Death" Page and Akitoshi "Ironman" Tamura has also been slated for the card.
Stay tuned to MMAmania.com for more on the developing fight card.
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