WEC 51: I CARE! Jose Aldo vs. Manny Gamburyan For The Faberweight Title!

Part III of the "WEC 51: I CARE" series, a drunkdepth analysis of the fight between Jose Aldo and Manny Gamburyan. In the first post, I discussed how it extremely odd how the WEC marketing department has failed to promote such an event and how the media mouth pieces that Zuffa usually relies on have been quiet with this stacked card. The second post was mildly detailed about the main card, which has two former title holders as well as a fight of the year candidates Leonard Garcia and Chan Sung Jung doing battle with Mark Hominick and George Roop respectively. The best fight though wasn't covered in those two posts, the proverbial "cherry on top" which is Jose Aldo defending his belt against Armenian wrecking machine Manny Gamburyan.

Jose Aldo was signed by the WEC in 2008, and competed on WEC 34: Faber vs. Pulver in a fighter where he was the underdog against the former Featherweight kingpin Alexandre Franca "Pequeno" Nogueira. Nogueira was the Shooto king from 1998 to 2005, so for an unknown fighter in Aldo, there weren't exactly high expectations. Jose was able to defeat "Pequeno" in the second round, and later on a positive test for Boldenone, which provided Alexandre second loss in a round, this time to the California State Athletic Commission. In a move to build up the young Brazilian, the WEC slow tracked him with fights against TUF 12 contestant Jonathan Brookins, Rolando Perez, and Chris Mickle, all of which ended in highlight reel fashion. His second real test in the WEC was against Cub Swanson, who was coming off a Fight of the Night decision win over Hiroyuki Takaya. Jose Aldo did some major surgery on Swanson's face by creating a vagina over his eye. It's a surgery usually only completed in the seediest streets of the third world. With a 5-0 record, Aldo was rewarded with a title shot against Mike Brown, who had two wins over Urijah Faber and stopped a streaking Leonard Garcia by arm-triangle. Needless to say, Aldo was the underdog once again, but at the end of the night TKO'd Brown in the second after the ATT fighter was unable to maintain top control when he was able to get the takedown. The last time we saw Aldo in action was at the inaugural UFC Presents: Aldo vs. Faber Championship event. Jose Aldo took on the face of the WEC, Urijah Faber, in the first WEC pay per view to date. For five rounds, Aldo leg kicked the California pretty boy to geriatric status. If it weren't for Faber's buttchin, the fight would have ended in spectacular fashion. This fight cemented Aldo as the best Faberweight of all time.

Manny Gamburyan made his name using the UFC marketing machine, as a cast member of The Ultimate Fighter: Pulver vs. Penn (TUF 5), as a member of Jens Pulver's team. The "Anvil" was able to absolutely destroy a completely overwhelmed Noah Thomas in his first fight by kimura in the first. His second fight was a tough test as he took on Matt Wiman, a UFC veteran. He was able to out muscle the Oklahoma Top Team fighter to a unanimous decision victory. Gamburyan was again faced with a UFC vet, when he faced the season favorite, Joe Lauzon, who had recently come off a knock out victory over Coach Pulver at UFC 63. In avfight that I consider one of the best of the season, the Armenian judoka was able to outwork the fighter from Massachusetts to earn a spot at the finale at the Palms in Las Vegas. After thoroughly working Nate Diaz for the first five minutes, Gamburyan attempted a throw only to dislocate his shoulder, thus ending his Ultimate Fighter dreams. At 5'5", Gamburyan was outsized, and after going 2-2 in the UFC, decided to drop to 145 and compete in the WEC. His first fight was against John Franchi, who earned a split decision victory over TUF 12 washout and former X Games star Mike Budnik, at WEC 41: Faber vs. Brown II. Manny was able to outwork and outmuscle Franchi to earn a Unanimous Decision victory. After this fight, due to his marketability coming off of TUF 5, Manny was fast tracked. He faced Leonard Garcia at WEC 44, in a very close Unanimous Decision victory where the score cards showed Gamburyan the winner 30-27 and 29-28x2. A fight with Mike Brown to determine the number one contender at WEC 48: Aldo v. Faber, had the judo player end the fight in spectacular fashion via knock out halfway through the first round.

The fight on Saturday will be a clash of styles with Jose Aldo possessing the more technical stand up game and sound BJJ game against Manny Gamburyan's heavy handed boxing and Judo game. Manny has done considerable work on his wrestling as well and possesses the skill set to create a very interesting fight. Rarely does a high level judo player make the transition to MMA as working without a Gi is often detrimental to the judo game. Manny has been able to make this transition seamlessly and if the fighters end up clinched, don't be surprised to see Aldo tossed on his head and finished with some ground and pound. My pick though is with the Brazilian, he is more proven and has been on a tear since splitting his time between Nova Uniao and Black House.

Tomorrow, part IV will be posted: "WEC 51: I Care! History of the Faberweight Belt!" In the meantime, please listen to Bloody Elbow's Luke Thomas interview with Manny Gamburyan