Former WEC lightweight champion Jamie Varner and fellow contender Kamal Shalorus fought to disappointing split draw on Saturday in the main event of WEC 49 in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada.
Varner hurt Shalorus in both the first and second rounds with accurate combinations, but was slowed by a broken hand that allowed Shalorus to salvage a draw with a late takedown despite losing a point for accidental low blows.
The injury-plagued Varner is now 16-3-1, while Shalorus goes to 6-0-2 with the surprising draw to remain unbeaten.
In the WEC 49 co-headliner, Mark Hominick won the battle of Canadian featherweights as he outlasted Yves Jabouin, weathering a high-paced opening round before stopping Jabouin with punches in the second.
Featherweight contender Josh Grispi made his case for a shot at 145-pound title-holder Jose Aldo, ending a year-long layoff by quickly submitting L.C. Davis with a gullotine choke in the opening round.
Also on the Versus-televised WEC 49 main card, lightweight Chris Horodecki earned his first WEC win by choking out late replacement Danny Downes in the third round, while former bantamweight champ Eddie Wineland scored a second-round TKO of Will Campuzano.
The WEC 49 prelims featured wins by Will Kerr, Wagnney Fabiano, Eric Koch, Diego Nunes, Chris Cariaso, and Renan Barao.
The official WEC 49 results were:
MAIN CARD
- Jamie Varner vs. Kamal Shalorus – split draw (27-29, 29-27, 28-28)
- Mark Hominick def. Yves Jabouin via TKO (strikes) – Round 2, 3:21
- Josh Grispi def. L.C. Davis via submission (guillotine choke) – Round 1, 2:33
- Chris Horodecki def. Danny Downes via submission (rear naked choke) – Round 3, 1:09
- Eddie Wineland def. Will Campuzano via TKO (strikes) – Round 2, 4:44
PRELIMINARY CARD
- Will Kerr def. Karen Darabedyan via submission (armbar) – Round 1, 1:20
- Wagnney Fabiano def. Frank Gomez via unanimous decision (30-27, 30-27, 30-27)
- Eric Koch def. Bendy Casimir via submission (triangle choke) – Round 1, 3:01
- Diego Nunes def. Rafael Assuncao via split decision (30-27, 28-29, 29-28)
- Chris Cariaso def. Rafael Rebello via unanimous decision (30-26, 29-28, 29-28)
- Renan Barao def. Anthony Leone via submission (armbar) – Round 3, 2:29
For the latest WEC news and WEC rumors stay tuned to MMAFrenzy.com.
Pictured: Kamal Shalorus
Latest
Arenas starting to fill, Kenny Florian just arrived :D
you there bharris?
Ya man I’m in row 7 and lovin the great fights so far. Jason MacDonald is here as well he’s still rockin the crutches hope he recovers fast.
Go on The Score’s carrying it live!!!!
HOLY SH!T
My girl on
Downes: “How’s he gonne win, he looks like regualar guy.”
Horedecki: “At least this guy has some muscle.”
let’s see the how casual opinions fare.
I don’t think Horedecki would look much better if he was booked to fight 4-5days before the fight.
Two GREAT fights….where the frenZy at?
you can always count on the WEC to bring it. can’t remember a card i watched of their’s that i didn’t come away from entertained.
What a co-main event!
wow a draw? really???
The guy just got kicked on a package 3 times, broke his lag and hand and at the end got robbed by the judges :-( , just WOW !
I know that Varner isn’t exactly anyone’s favorite fighter, but a draw is a bit ridiculous, especially when you factor in the number of shots that landed down in the South Park…
I had a feeling it would be scored a draw, actually. I’d have to rewatch the second to score it myself as the that round kinda became a mess in my head with all the stoppages, but the first and third were clearly split between the two fighters, I thought.
Hmm, maybe I should go back and watch the fight more closely.
Possibly I was distracted by the low blows and maybe subconsciously was overadjusting in Varner’s favor because I just don’t like the guy, and was trying to give him the benefit of the doubt…
horrible decision. thats right up there with bisping-hamill and shogun-machida. as much as i dislike varner i had him winning that fight 30-26. judging is a SERIOUS problem in mma this is getting rediculous.
Just how exactly did Varner win the 3rd round in your eyes?
landed more shots on the feet and was able to neutralize shalarus on the ground until he got a nice reversal using the cage. he also defended a single leg early in the round. for arguments sake ill give shalarus round 3, he still loses 29-27….
kenny florian also said he thought varner won 30-26 and he was cage side so im not the only one.
He was taken down and held down for part of the round, and I thought Shalorous was more aggressive and did better in the striking in that round. Plus Varner went into Kalib Starnes mode for the last minute of the round, so I don’t see how he won it.
As far as KenFlo seeing it 30-26, I don’t see how he saw it that way either (obviously), and you mentioning his opinion matching yours isn’t going to change mine.
well said but it doesnt change the fact that varner should have won whether it be 30-26 or 29-27.
if you look at the only round that wasn’t totally clear(the 2nd), you can see why it could have gone either way in the eyes of the judges. Shalorus landed 27 strikes to Varner’s 14. Shalorus also landed a greater percentage of his strikes(49% to 25%). Varner landed more to the head but took massive damage in that round from the kicks. Depending on whose judging… and their interpretation of the the judging criteria(damage versus strikes landed) it’s easy to see where that round could have gone either way and with the point deduction it’s not entirely implausible the judges just gave it a 9-9 because it was close. All three for either fighter is ridiculous but a draw was easy to see.
if were judging based on effective striking varner seemed to be getting off first and shalarus didnt land any real damaging shots aside from leg kicks while varner hurt shalarus with punches that had him visibly rocked, i would give it to varner but thats just me
like I said, it’s up to interpretation ;)
Awesome, Chris Cariso won! 30-26? Dang.
Good job nunes!
Keep the streak going! Hate to see my fellow KC native put to sleep by grispi, but josh is awesome too. I’d like to see grispi and nunes go at it myself.
Ok here is the question. How do you feel about a fighter when he openly calls a bullsh1t decision by the judges? Just wanted to know aren’t you suppose to honor the judges decision with respect specially when you haven’t even leave the ring? We heard the words lot of time “If u leave the decision to judges then just STFU!” Isn’t this behavior is some kind of disrespect to MMA?
I don’t have a problem with fighters voicing their disagreement with the judges. Something needs to be done about the judging in MMA, there are too many nutty scores handed in, and though I don’t necessarily think a draw was wrong last night, one judge giving all 3 rounds to Shalorus was ridiculous.
About the scores I am totally fine with the draw and agree. And I think it was a draw indeed. Even though varner hit with hand more but look at those leg kicks by Shalorus and the cage control. He also had a few take downs. Shalorus would get the win if he wouldn’t kick the groins and the 1 point taken in rd2. Props to Mr. Varner’s steel ballz!
I have one problem with Varner complaining… he ran around the cage for the last two minutes. You should fight to the bell. I know he was hurt but you can’t complain when you just stop fighting.
That is a valid point Chris, I didn’t think about that part. I was speaking generally, and not about this specific fight, and Varner going the Kalib Starnes route to close out the fight.
i don’t think it was disrespectful at all. i’m not a big varner fan but it wasn’t a bad thing for him to think the decision was “bogus”. people blow things out of proportion
Good question about fighters commenting on decisions.
Honestly, I am not a fan of sh!t-talking or other sorts of fighter whining, or as our UK frenZied might say, whinging.
However, the state of MMA scoring is going from bad to worse to almost ridiculous.
More than once I’ve seen a score turned in where fighter A clearly lost 2 of 3 rounds to fighter B, and yet he receives a 30-27 score from a judge.
WTF?
And I realize that a fighter shouldn’t “let it go to the judges”, but thats becoming fairly unrealistic with the growth of the sport, the money now involved, current fightplanning and cage styles, and the overall improvement in training techniques, not to mention the number of quality camps operating in comparison to a decade ago.
Refs are urged not to stop fights too quickly, and fighters are urged to “stay with the fightplan”, even when it means going to a decision.
Either the refs or the judges need to shift gears, or this situation is only going to get worse.
At some point someone has to say something, or things will either stay as they are, or GSP forbid get even more skewed.
IMO it would carry more weight if the promoter rather than the fighter/s stated the case against a sh!t decision, ESPECIALLY if it were the most powerful promoter in the sport, Dana White.
I know Dana has said repeatedly that the NSAC could care less about what he thinks, but thats not really true.
If the UFC up and relocated to Denver or Chicago tomorrow, and issued a public statement giving the sh!tful officiating provided by the NSAC as the primary reason, there would be repurcussions felt by everyone from Bill Brady to Keith Kizer to Patrick Lundvall, not to mention certain state house folk would be seriously p!ssed off at all the hate mail their constituents would fire their way, and campaign donations that would not be fired their way.
In no way am I suggesting anything underhanded here, like they had/have over in pro boxing where promoters are funding commissions,
or like they had back in Albany, NY during boxing’s black & white heyday, but I don’t think its completely unreasonable for Zuffa, who is primarily respsonsible for MMA in North America, to take a strong and very public stand against bad officiating, whether it be in-cage or cageside…
Uh…no. Not a draw. Varner won that fight.