The Weekly Wrap: May 30 – June 5

WEC, Strikeforce Run-Up

Strikeforce and World Extreme Cagefighting went all-out in driving home excitement for respective cards that could be each promotion’s biggest of the year.

Strikeforce will stage its first show in St. Louis on Saturday for a Showtime television event. Robbie Lawler, who faces Jake Shields in a catchweight main event, threw out the first pitch at a St. Louis Cardinals game on June 4 in an effort to spark local interest. Strikeforce will, for the second time, offer an “All Access” feature on the Internet, which allows viewers, for $24.95, to toggle between five live camera feeds, pause and rewind and tap different audio during the fights. The show will be available on pay-per-view in Canada.

All Strikeforce fighters made weight Friday.

Meanwhile, the WEC is promoting the Mike Thomas Brown vs. Urijah Faber rematch atop Sunday's card as “the biggest featherweight fight in MMA history.” In terms of ratings and attendance, that distinction belongs to the Faber vs. Jens Pulver fight last June, which was heavily promoted and included an hour-long “Countdown”-style preview show on Versus. Faber told the Sherdog Radio Network’s “Beatdown” show there were plans for a similar special for the Brown rematch at WEC 41, but they were called off for reasons that were unclear.

The rematch, this time held in Faber’s hometown of Sacramento, Calif., had about 1,000 tickets left for the 12,000-seat configuration at Arco Arena, WEC General Manager Reed Harris told MMAJunkie.com late in the week. Faber threw out the first pitch in an Oakland Athletics game recently to help promote the fight; Brown told “Beatdown” he was hesitant to get on a plane and make promotional appearances during his training camp but appeared at a hockey game after he saw Faber on the campaign trail at UFC 98. UFC President Dana White posted video blogs in the run-up for the show, the first time he has done so for a WEC event. UFC lightweight contender Kenny Florian will serve as color commentator for the Versus broadcast.

Despite landing an emphatic technical knockout in the first bout with Faber in November, Brown finds himself an underdog in most betting lines (though 17 of 30 professional fighters polled by Sherdog.com picked Brown to win). The winner may face the victor of the Jose Aldo vs. Cub Swanson fight. WEC 41 fighters will weigh in on Saturday.