Henderson tops Varner to unify WEC lightweight title

By foxsports
Published

The WEC 46 main event featured a fighter who was looking to make a big return: Jamie Varner. He battled  WEC lightweight interim champion Benson Henderson in a bout to determine the true lightweight champion Sunday night in Sacramento, Calif.

Varner put on the pressure early, but was unable to finish the fight after Henderson managed to avoid a guillotine submission.

However, Varner did enough to take the first round.

Varner continued to push the pace in the second round and the third round, but the fight remained very even. The Sacramento fans grew restless with the lack of action, as Varner looked to box, and Henderson looked to avoid a boxing match and utilize his superior grappling.

However, Henderson managed to turn the boos to cheers with an out-of-the-blue submission attempt that left Varner with no other option than to tap utilizing a very tight standing guillotine choke.

Henderson managed to unify the belt and become the WEC undisputed lightweight champion, spoiling Varner’s return.

In earlier action, Mike Brown took a big step back toward regaining his featherweight title with a first round submission victory over WEC-newcomer Anthony Morrision.

Brown, fighting for the first time since a demoralizing loss at the hands of devastating Brazilian Jose Aldo at WEC 44, traded on the feet with Morrision in the early going. But Brown found little success until he decided to bring the fight to the canvas, where he put Morrison through a grappling and ground-and-pound clinic.

The American Top Teamer was able to utilize his heavy hands and superior ground game to work toward Morrison's back and locked in rear-naked choke for the win.

However, Brown was not the only former-WEC featherweight champion looking to make a glorious return to the blue octagon, as long-time champion Urijah Faber took on submission ace Raphael Assuncao.

After taking a fairly significant time away from the octagon because of injuries sustained against Mike Brown in their championship rematch at WEC 41, Faber was welcomed back with the ecstatic Sacramento crowd.

The first round was a very close one, as neither fighter was able to display a clear advantage, but the second round was much easier to score. Faber was able to drop Assuncao with a heavy right hand and worked very well on the ground against the world class grappler, managing to utilize effective ground and pound and nearly locking on a guillotine choke to end the fight.

The third round was more of the same when Faber managed to dominate Assuncao in the stand up and on the ground. The end was drawing near for Assuncao when Faber knocked him down for a second time during the fight, and went in for the finish. Faber was able to secure the back and locked in a rear naked choke, as the Sacramento fans screamed in approval.