Mike Brown dominant in WEC Featherweight title defense

Despite Mike Brown’s impressive TKO win over Urijah Faber last November to become WEC featherweight champion, there were still plenty of skeptics heading into his Sunday night title defense against highly touted Leonard Garcia.  Some suggested that it was more a case of Faber losing the title instead of Brown winning it, and that it was only a matter of time until ‘The California Kid’ regained the belt.  Following Brown’s wire to wire destruction of Garcia, however, they naysayers are being forced to reassess their position.

Garcia entered the bout off of a couple of dominating performance of his own.  He had knocked out Hiroyuki Takaya in just over a minute in his WEC debut last February, but really gained the attention of fight fins with his first round obliteration of legendary Jens Pulver.  That earned him the title shot, and most pundits gave him a realistic chance against Brown due to his youth, speed and power. 

As Sunday’s fight began, however, Garcia looked somewhat tentative as if he was unsure about engaging with Brown.  His trepidation was well founded, since on his first punch attempt he was met with a perfectly placed overhand right counter that sent him to the canvas.  Brown jumped on top of his opponent and pressed his advantage with a punishing ‘ground and pound’ attack that opened up a nasty cut on the challenger’s eyelid.

Brown went for a rear naked choke, but had trouble getting a grip on his opponent’s head due to the copious blood flow.  For a moment, it appeared that Garcia had weathered the storm as he began to fight back with elbows from the bottom.  The challenger’s offense was only fleeting, however, and soon Brown had him back under control.  The champion quickly locked in an arm triangle choke that forced Garcia to tap out at 1:57 of the opening round.

Despite the loss, Garcia was happy to just have the opportunity to fight.  Last March, Garcia was arrested on allegations that he was part of a major cocaine ring in Texas.  He was exonerated three months later.  This is how he describes the situation:

“I had a buddy, a really good friend of mine in Lubbock, and he was into things that weren’t good,” he said. “I knew about what the guy was up to but he was a friend of mine. The law says even if he’s your friend, you are required to report on the guy. The other 11 guys (who were an alleged part of a major cocaine ring in the Texas panhandle), I didn’t know any of them.”

Brown’s next title defense will very likely be the man from whom he won the championship—Urijah Faber.  Faber if off of an impressive submission win over Jens Pulver in January and although there are a number of other credible challengers in the featherweight class he’ll likely receive the first shot at Brown’s title.  After tonight’s victory, however, it’s no longer a foregone conclusion that Faber will be able to defeat Brown in a rematch.