THE CANADIAN PRESS
BROOMFIELD, Colo. — WEC featherweight champion Jose (Junior) Aldo stopped Manny (The Anvil) Gamburyan in the second round Thursday night in the main event of WEC 51.
After a slow first round, Aldo (18-1) caught Gamburyan with a combo. The challenger tried to shoot in for a takedown and was caught with an uppercut. Gamburyan (13-6) fell to the mat and Aldo finished it with ground strikes. Referee Herb Dean stepped in at one minute 32 seconds.
The quick finish solidified the Brazilian’s reputation as one of the best pound-for-pound fighters in mixed martial arts.
Aldo, who has not lost in almost five years, was coming off a dominant win over former champion Urijah (The California Kid) Faber in April.
In the co-main event at the 1st Bank Center, lightweight Donald (Cowboy) Cerrone won a bad blood rematch via decision over Jamie Varner in an all-action contest.
The judges scored it unanimously 30-27 for Cerrone (12-3 and one no contest) over Varner (16-4-3 and two no contests).
Varner won a split decision when they first met in January 2009 in a fight that went to the judges early after Varner was unable to continue after taking an accidental illegal knee to the head.
Cerrone was forced to apologize in the leadup to this fight for saying in an interview he hoped Varner "is the first death in MMA."
Cerrone, who scored consistently through the bout, offered to give Varner a third fight, but said their feud isn’t over.
It was a good night for Canadian fighters with featherweight Mark (the Machine) Hominick of Thamesford, Ont., and lightweight Chris (The Polish Hammer) Horodecki both winning by split decision.
Hominick (19-8) used his technical striking and conditioning to take control against a game Leonard (Bad Boy) Garcia (18-6-1), who suffered from fatigue and a porous defence as the fight wore on.
The decision went 29-28, 29-28, 28-29 for Hominick, who has now won three straight in the WEC.
Horodecki (15-2) defeated Ed Ratcliff (7-3) via 30-27, 30-27, 28-29 scorecard for his second straight WEC victory.
Bantamweight George Roop (11-7-1) knocked out Chan Sung Jung (10-3) with a stunning head kick, felling the Korean Zombie at 1:30 of the second round. The hard-nosed South Korean, who turned heads in an April slugfest loss to Garcia, was out before he hit the canvas.
Former featherweight champion Mike Brown (24-6), who lost his 145-pound title to Aldo and was beaten by Gamburyan last time out, stopped Cole Province (6-2 with one contest) by TKO at 1:18 of the first round.
Miguel Angel Torres (37-3), who lost his 135-pound crown to Brian Bowles and then was beaten by Joseph Benavidez, bounced back with a submission win over bantamweight Charlie Valencia (12-6).
Torres dropped Valencia in the second round, landed a flurry of ground strikes and then ended it with a rear naked choke at 2:25 of the second round.
Chinese lightweight Tiequan (The Mongolian Wolf) Zhang (17-0) won his WEC debut by submitting Pablo Garza (9-1) by guillotine choke at 2:26 of the first round.
In other undercard action, all decided by unanimous decisions, featherweight Diego Nunes defeated Tyler Toner, bantamweight Antonio Banuelos beat Chad George and featherweight Demetrious Johnson dispatched Nick Pace.
