WEC 45 – The Aftermath

By Frank Curreri

Donald Cerrone’s inadvertent low blows against Ed Ratcliff Saturday night did more than make “9mm” double over in pain – they incited the San Diegan’s mama, who sat cageside during the WEC 45 main event.

“She was like, ‘Aaaaaahhhhh!’ I was trying to calm her down because she was going crazy,” Cerrone said of the earful Mama Ratcliff gave him during a second stoppage of action in round one. “She was legitimately mad. I said to her, ‘I’m so sorry, maam I’m not doing this intentionally. I’m so sorry. Calm down, don’t get me when I get out of this cage.’”

Ratcliff, who absorbed three inadvertent knees just below the belt, could have signaled to referee Herb Dean that he could not continue, which might have spelled disqualification for Cowboy (who had two points deducted for missing his mark with the shots). But Ratcliff said quitting never crossed his mind.

“My hats off to Ed. Thank you, Ed. He could have quit and he didn’t,” said Cerrone, who cinched the crowd-pleasing main event with a rear naked choke late in the third round. “This fight was all about me and maturing mentally. I was out there to have fun. In my head, I knew I was losing the fight with the points deducted, but I didn’t care. I was having a good time. That’s all I cared about. I wanted to finish the fight and save nothing for the swim back.”

Cerrone and Ratcliff won Fight of The Night bonuses for their memorable battle. It was the third Fight of the Night honor of the year for Cerrone, who also had unforgettable battles against Jamie Varner and Benson Henderson.

The Knockout of the Night award and bonus money went to Anthony Njokuani, who clobbered Chris Horodecki with a perfect high kick to the head that floored the Canadian and set in motion his demise.

“I knew for a fact he cound’t beat me standing up,” Njokuani said.

It was Njokuani’s third Knockout of the Night award in 2009, but he had plenty of stiff competition on this night thanks to Joseph Benavidez (who knocked out Rani Yahya with a booming overhand right) and WEC newcomer Brandon Visher (whose hammer fists removed Courtney Buck from consciousness and prompted UFC president Dana White to tweet a scathing criticism of what he considered a lackadaisical referee stoppage of the bout).

Submission of the Night went to Britain’s Brad Pickett, who notched his 19th win with a beautiful Peruvian necktie that forced Kyle Dietz to tap. The two biggest upsets of the night were waged by bantamweight Scott Jorgensen and lightweight Bart Palaszewski. Jorgensen, known more for his wrestling, pounded Takeya Mizugaki with punches and nearly finished him before settling for a unanimous decision victory. The veteran Palaszewski, meanwhile, impressed by knocking highly-regarded Anthony Pettis to the canvas with a punch and outhustling the Wisconsinite for much of the bout en route to a hard-earned split decision win. It was the 33rd victory of Palaszewski’s career and it came over a previously unbeaten dynamo whom many believed was on the fast track toward a title shot.

The entertaining array of fights brought a smile to the face of Harris, who founded the WEC in 2001 along with Scott Adams.

“This was probably one of the best nights of fighting I’ve seen in my career,” Harris said. All of my fighters went out there and brought it. And that’s all we ask them to do.”