HENDERSON AND PETTIS CLASH TO DETERMINE UFC LIGHTWEIGHT TITLE CONTENDER AND CRUZ AND JORGENSEN FIGHT FOR FIRST EVER UFC BANTAMWEIGHT CROWN
VERSUS Once Again Airs Pre- and Post- Shows Live from the Arena with
Special Guest Commentator “The California Kid” Urijah Faber
NEW YORK, N.Y. —VERSUS will air a historic night of World Extreme Cagefighting® action on Thursday, December 16, at 9 p.m. ET, live from Jobing.com Arena in Glendale, Ariz. The night includes a lightweight battle as champion Ben Henderson defends his title against Anthony Pettis followed by the highly-anticipated match between bantamweight champion Dominick Cruz and Scott Jorgensen. The network will once again air extended coverage with two live shows, hosted by Molly Qerim and MMA writer Ariel Helwani, before and after the fight action, beginning at 8 p.m. ET.
VERSUS will extend its pre-fight show coverage to one hour and the show will feature a retrospective of the most spectacular moments in WEC history and count down the top five all-time fights and KO’s. VERSUS will also interview the fighters just seconds before they step into the cage and will welcome special guests, including former WEC lightweight champion Urijah Faber. The half-hour post-fight show will wrap up all the night’s action, including and a guest appearance by UFC heavyweight champion Cain Velasquez.
In the main event, lightweight champion Ben Henderson will face challenger Anthony Pettis with the winner of the fight taking on the victor of the Jan. 1 UFC 125 main event title bout between lightweight champion Frankie Edgar and Gray Maynard. The two winners will go head-to-head in a UFC lightweight title unification bout to be held next year. Current bantamweight champion Dominick Cruz will then face Scott Jorgensen with the winner of the bout automatically becoming the first UFC bantamweight champion.
The night’s undercard is also stacked with a lightweight battle between veteran Donald “Cowboy” Cerrone (12-3, 1 NC) and Chris Horodecki (15-2) along with fights between Kamal Shalorus (6-0-2) and Bart Palaszewski (34-13) and Tiequan Zhang (17-0) against Danny Downes (6-1).
VERSUS will expand its partnership with the UFC and feature four events in 2011. The UFC will be adding championship divisions at bantamweight and featherweight next year. The two new divisions feature WEC featherweight champion Jose Aldo who will now be recognized as the reigning UFC featherweight champion.
The WEC® brand is recognized as one of the premier mixed martial arts organizations in the United States. WEC®, founded in 2001, is the sister organization of the Ultimate Fighting Championship® and today features the most prominent light weight fighters in the world. Owned and operated by WEC Holdings LLC., and headquartered in Las Vegas, Nev., the WEC produces live and taped events annually that are distributed through the Versus network. WEC programming is also available on Fox Sports en Espanol. In addition to its U.S distribution, WEC programming is shown on The Score network in Canada, Setanta Sports in Australia, Globosat in Brazil, and Cadena Tres in Mexico. For more information and current WEC fight news, visit wec.tv. World Extreme Cagefighting® and WEC® are registered trademarks, trademarks, trade dress or service marks owned exclusively by WEC® Holdings, LLC in the United States and other jurisdictions and are licensed to WEC Productions, LLC.
VERSUS prides itself on super-serving passionate sports fans across all platforms (VERSUS.com, VERSUS on Demand and VERSUS HD). Now in more than 75 million homes, the network is the cable television home of the National Hockey League (NHL), IZOD IndyCar Series, Tour de France, World Extreme Cagefighting (WEC) and Professional Bull Riders (PBR). VERSUS also airs NASCAR, NBA, UFC, college football and college basketball programming. The network is home to the best outdoor programming on television and airs original programs not available anywhere else, including The T.Ocho Show. VERSUS, a wholly owned company of Comcast Corporation (NASDAQ: CMCSA, CMCSK), is distributed via cable systems and satellite operators throughout the United States.
