In front of a sold out crowd at the ARCO Arena in Sacramento, California, WEC featherweight champion Urijah Faber successfully defended his 145-pound title, besting former UFC lighweight champion Jens Pulver in a dominating-yet-exciting unanimous decision victory.

The “California Kid’s” victory highlighted the twelve-bout card which was broadcast on Versus.

Faber dominated from the opening bell, controlling the pace of the bout with a right hand that immediately found it’s mark and continued to land for the remainder of the bout. After an especially dominant opening to the first round Pulver coutered Faber’s early shots with some offense of his own but Faber finished out the round with accurate rights. In the second, Faber rocked Pulver with a combination then followed with even more strikes but the UFC veteran survived the flurry and returned with some offense of his own, hurting Faber with a solid combination before the pair finished out the round with a back-and-forth exchanged.

Through the final three frames, Faber continued to connect with accurate rights and combos and secured multiple takedowns to wrap up the exciting unanimous decision victory. Judges scored the bout 50-45, 50-44, and 50-44. MMAFrenzy.com scored the contest 50-45 in faver of the “California Kid”.

After the fight, both fighters expressed their mutual respect for one another while the announcer’s set the stage for a Faber-Pulver rematch down the road. When asked about a potential rematch, Jens Pulver (21-9-1) stated that he wished to defeat another opponent before rematching with the promotion’s dominant 145-pound champion Urijah Faber (21-1), who improved his record to twenty-one wins and only one loss with the unanimous decision victory.

In the event’s other title bout, the promotion’s 135-pound bantamweight title was on the line as champion Miguel Torres (34-1) looked to defend his crown against challenger Yoshiro Maeda (23-5-2). In a very exciting, back-and-forth battle the pair put on quite the show, battering, bruising, and bloodying one-another over three full rounds. After closely contested first and second rounds, Torres took control in the third and tagged his opponent with a series of combinations including a solid punch that immediately caused Maeda’s eye to swell. Maeda narrowly survives the round but during the break the doctor calls the bout as a result of the eye injury and Torres is declared the winner, retaining the WEC bantamweight title.

In other main card action, Chuck Grigsby (13-4), who held a distinct size advantage over opponent Mark Munoz (4-0), was knocked unconscious late in the opening round after Munoz connected with a vicious ground and pound assault from the top position and former WEC lightweight champion “Razor” Rob McCullough (16-4) defeated Kenneth Alexander (5-3) via split decision to open the broadcast with scores of 30-27, 30-27, and 28-29.

WEC 34 OFFICIAL RESULTS

• Champion Urijah Faber def. Jens Pulver via unanimous decision
  WEC Featherweight Championship
• Champion Miguel Torres def. Yoshiro Maeda via TKO – Round 3, 5:00
  WEC Bantamweight Championship
• Mark Munoz def. Chuck Grigsby via KO – Round 1, 4:15
• Rob McCullough def. Kenneth Alexander via split decision
• Donald Cerrone def. Danny Castillo via submission – Round 1, 1:30
• Mike Brown def. Jeff Curran via unanimous decision
• Will Ribeiro def. Chase Beebe via split decision
• Tim McKenzie def. Jeremy Lang via submission – Round 3, 0:40
• Alex Serdyukov def. Luis Sapo via TKO – Round 1, 5:00
• Jose Aldo def. Alexandre Nogueira via TKO – Round 2, 3:22
• Dominick Cruz def. Charlie Valencia via unanimous decision

Tags: Alex Serdyukov, Alexandre Franca Nogueira, Charlie Valencia, Chase Beebe, Chuck Grigsby, Danny Castillo, Dominick Cruz, Donald Cerrone, Jeff Curran, Jens Pulver, Jeremy Lang, jose aldo, Kenneth Alexander, Luis Sapo, mark munoz, miguel torres, mike brown, Rob McCullough, tim mckenzie, Urijah Faber, Will Ribeiro, Yoshiro Maeda