A fitting headliner for the first WEC pay-per-view, Aldo will risk his featherweight title and 145-pound alpha status against former champion Urijah Faber at WEC 48 on April 24. Aldo’s first title defense will come on hostile grounds in front of a pro-Faber crowd in Sacramento, Calif.
2. Mike Thomas Brown (23-5)
Brown’s quick return to the cage on Jan. 10 was successful, as he easily tapped Anthony Morrison in the first round. His next assignment will be considerably tougher, as he meets Manny Gamburyan at WEC 48 on April 24.
3. Urijah Faber (23-3)
Faber will have another chance to regain featherweight supremacy April 24 in front of a partisan Sacramento, Calif., crowd at the Arco Arena, as he headlines the WEC’s first pay-per-view. However, not all favors “The California Kid.” He will have to deal with the division’s dynamic champion, Jose Aldo.
4. Bibiano Fernandes (8-2)
In the first defense of the Dream featherweight title he captured last October, Fernandes did enough to earn a split decision victory over former Dream lightweight champion Joachim Hansen. He kept his title and notched easily the biggest win of his blossoming career.
5. Raphael Assuncao (14-2)
In his first elite-level test, Assuncao was game but outmatched against former WEC featherweight champion Urijah Faber at WEC 46, eventually succumbing to “The California Kid” late in the third frame. It was just the second loss of Assuncao’s career, following his highly controversial majority decision defeat to Jeff Curran in November 2006.
6. Michihiro Omigawa (9-8-1)
On April 25 in Tokyo, Omigawa’s mentor, Hidehiko Yoshida, will call it a career at his farewell Astra event. On the undercard, Omigawa will try to continue his impressive featherweight run when he takes on WEC veteran Micah Miller in the show’s most outstanding bout.
7. Hatsu Hioki (20-4-2)
From his professional debut as a 19-year-old, Hioki was always tabbed as a future Shooto world champion. On May 30, the Nagoya, Japan, native will get his chance when he squares off with Shooto’s 143-pound ace “Lion Takeshi” Takeshi Inoue at “The Way of Shooto 3,” with the title on the line.
8. Manny Gamburyan (10-4)
When he cut from 155 to 145 pounds, it was anticipated that Gamburyan would be a shoo-in title challenger. In order to get that opportunity, he will have to deal with former divisional champion Mike Thomas Brown when the pair squares off at WEC 48 on April 24.
9. Masanori Kanehara (16-7-5)
On New Year’s Eve, Kanehara notched the most significant win of his professional career by upsetting Japanese superstar Norifumi “Kid” Yamamoto. Now, in his first Sengoku title defense on June 20, he will be in for another tough test when he takes on Nova Uniao standout Marlon Sandro.
10. Marlon Sandro (16-1)
It took Sandro just nine seconds to crush Tomonari Kanomata in March. That brutal win paved the way for his Sengoku featherweight title challenge on June 20 against Kanomata’s teammate, Masanori Kanehara. It will mark Kanehara’s first defense.
Other contenders: L.C. Davis, Josh Grispi, Takeshi Inoue, Mackens Semerzier, Deividas Taurosevicius.