VERSUS will air a historic night of World Extreme Cage fighting 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.
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.
