Brown had a coming-out party with his championship clobbering of featherweight poster boy Urijah Faber in November, but now he will need to cement his place atop the 145-pound world. He’ll be able to take the first step toward that goal in March, when he’ll likely defend his WEC title in his adopted backyard of Florida against Leonard Garcia.
2. Urijah Faber (21-2)
As “The California Kid” looks to rebound following his November drubbing at the hands of Brown, he’ll meet a very familiar face at WEC 38. On Jan. 25, he takes on Jens Pulver, whom he defeated in June in a fantastic five-round bout.
3. Leonard Garcia (12-3)
Garcia beat Hiroyuki Takaya and federal drug trafficking charges in a resurgent 2008. Then he stepped into the cage with Pulver in November and blew out the former UFC champion in just 72 seconds. Now Garcia is the No. 1 contender to the WEC featherweight crown and will likely meet Brown in March.
4. Wagnney Fabiano (11-1)
It took him nearly the full 15 minutes, but Fabiano finished off former Shooto world champ Akitoshi Tamura after a dominating performance. With a Brown-Garcia bout on the horizon, Fabiano could be a bout away from meeting the winner and trying to add to his mantle.
5. Dokonjonosuke Mishima (19-6-2)
Mishima impressively finished off the tough Toshiaki Kitada on Dec. 22 in a bout in which his Deep featherweight crown was not at stake. He will likely make his first title defense in the first half of 2009.
6. Hatsu Hioki (17-3-2)
Hioki blew the doors off of Shooto icon Rumina Sato on Nov. 29, which should put the lanky Nagoyan on course -- barring any upsets from the often-flaky Hioki -- to tangle with Shooto world champion “Lion Takeshi” Takeshi Inoue in 2009.
7. Jeff Curran (30-10-1)
Having decided to cut to bantamweight, it was expected that Curran would make his 135-pound debut at the WEC’s Dec. 3 card. However, an injured hand postponed his divisional debut, as the “Big Frog” will make his first bantamweight appearance sometime in 2009.
8. Masakazu Imanari (15-6-1)
Imanari dropped to bantamweight in August and needed only 29 seconds to heel hook Hiroshi Umemura to win Deep’s bantamweight title. His future remains uncertain, though, as there have been talks of him heading to Dream to compete as a featherweight. If nothing else, the Deep bantamweight tournament, which began in December, will give Imanari a title challenger sometime in 2009.
9. Takeshi Inoue (15-3)
It was hard work, but “Lion Takeshi” became the first man to lose and regain a Shooto world title on Nov. 29 when he took a one-point unanimous decision over Hideki Kadowaki and recaptured his 143-pound crown. However, if Inoue is to finally become the champion Shooto promoters want him to be, he’ll need some consistency in 2009.
10. Jose Aldo (12-1)
The 22-year-old Nova Uniao product earned another impressive stoppage in the WEC cage, as he punched out Jonathan Brookins in November. Now, the potential featherweight star will finally get some airtime come Jan. 25 when he meets fellow Brazilian Fredson Paixao at WEC 38.