THE CANADIAN PRESS
LAS VEGAS — Urijah (California Kid) Faber retained his World Extreme Cagefighting featherweight title but Jeff (The Big Frog) Curran didn’t make it easy Wednesday night.
After a tough first round, Faber locked in a guillotine choke in the second, prompting Curran to tap at four minutes 35 seconds. Early on, Curran tripped Faber and briefly mounted him before taking his back. Faber survived the onslaught and cut Curran with his elbows in the second round before taking him down.
The win at The Palms raised Faber’s record to 20-1 while Curran slipped to 31-9-1.
Former UFC lightweight champion Jens (Lil Evil) Pulver made short work of Cub Swanson, resisting a takedown and applying a choke that ended the bout after just 35 seconds.
Pulver, undefeated in eight fights at 145 pounds, improved to 22-8. Swanson fell to 11-2.
Faber and Pulver seemed destined to meet in the near future at 145 pounds.
Chael Sonnen gave undefeated WEC champion Paulo Filho a run for his money before a mistake late in the second round that allowed the Brazilian to lock on an armbar. The referee stopped the fight with five seconds remaining.
Hard-hitting Doug Marshall retained his WEC light-heavyweight belt by stopping Ariel Gandulla via armbar 55 seconds into the first round.
Canadian welterweight John Alessio, a B.C. native fighting out of Las Vegas, improved to 27-11 after a unanimous decision victory over Todd Moore (9-1).
