The Weekly Wrap: Jan. 9 - Jan. 15

The Weekly Wrap walks readers through the last seven days in MMA, recapping and putting into context the week's top story, important news and notable quotes.

Top Story

World Extreme Cagefighting got a shot in the arm and saw the table set for its first pay-per-view on Jan. 10. At WEC 46, the promotion’s top attraction, Urijah Faber, rebounded from back-to-back losses by stopping a bona fide top featherweight; in the main event, the promotion crowned Benson Henderson its unified lightweight champion, an outcome that may set up a grudge match between Jamie Varner and Donald Cerrone.

Coming off surgery for extensive damage to his hands, Faber dropped the accomplished Raphael Assuncao on two occasions with punches before latching on a rear-naked choke in the third round for the submission. WEC officials said the win sets up Faber to challenge the dynamic Jose Aldo for the featherweight title, the expected main event of the promotion’s first pay-per-view effort.

Aldo was brought into the cage after the fight for some verbal back-and-forth to tease the match between two of the speediest featherweights in the game. The pay-per-view is being targeted for April or May, according to The Wrestling Observer.

Faber earned an event-high $62,000 -- including a $10,000 submission bonus -- for the victory, which helped boost television ratings, a category in which WEC has been weak in recent months. The Versus broadcast, extended by a half hour to include a fifth fight, drew an average 640,000 viewers, a near 100 percent increase from the 330,000 drawn for WEC 45 on Dec. 19. The card broke a trend of every card since WEC 41 dropping in ratings, around the same time Direct TV dropped Versus from its lineup due to a rights fee dispute and other issues. The event was the first under a new deal with Versus that calls for seven WEC events in 2010.

WEC 46 drew 8,818 attendees (6,991 paid) to Faber’s home arena, the Arco Arena in Sacramento, Calif., for a $550,215 gate. While the numbers were strong, they were down significantly from Faber’s last showing in his home arena. His rematch against Mike Thomas Brown at WEC 41 on June 7 in at Arco drew 12,706 for a $818,415 gate, and an average of 1.28 million viewers on Versus. That event drew the promotion’s largest crowd and second-highest television rating.

WEC 46 also saw one of 2009’s breakout stars, Benson Henderson, take the mantle as lightweight champion, tapping Jamie Varner with a guillotine choke as Varner shot a takedown in the third round. It was Varner’s first fight in nearly a year, when an eye injury forced a premature end to his heated fight against Donald Cerrone. Varner looked sharp with takedowns and took the first two rounds before getting tapped.

Varner’s post-fight comments intimated that Henderson’s method of victory meant he hadn’t come to fight, leading to a higher-than-usual octave of boos from the live crowd. WEC General Manager Reed Harris said the winner of the title fight would get Cerrone, but Yahoo Sports reported after the show that Varner vs. Cerrone could be slated for the upcoming pay-per-view.

Mike Thomas Brown got back on the winning track following an emphatic loss of the WEC featherweight belt to Jose Aldo in November, quickly dispatching WEC newcomer Anthony Morrison with a rear-naked choke less than two minutes into the fight. Brown recently signed a new five-fight deal with the WEC.

Also on the evening’s main card, lightweight Kamal Shalorus took a unanimous decision over Dave Jansen, mostly by hitting forceful takedowns, and Deividas Taurosevicius took a workmanlike decision over Mackens Semerzier.

The evening’s first fight won both principals “Fight of the Night” bonuses, as Will Campuzano and Coty “Ox” Wheeler had at it in a hard-hitting affair. Campuzano shone with strikes as Wheeler struggled to get the fight to the mat in taking the unanimous decision. A video of the fight was posted to the Versus Web site.

Also picking up wins at WEC 46 were Eddie Wineland (unanimous decision over George Roop); Mark Hominick (first-round triangle submission over Bryan Caraway); Wagnney Fabiano (unanimous decision over Clint Godfrey); and Charlie Valencia (split decision over Akitoshi Tamura). Hominick’s submission, swiftly locked in off of a sweep attempt, made the Versus broadcast.