Main card winners Manny Gamburyan and Jose Aldo topped the $236,500 payroll for Wednesday’s WEC 44 event, which took place at The Pearl at The Palms in Las Vegas and aired live on Versus.

Gamburyan earned $36,000 for his decision win over fellow featherweight contender Leonard Garcia in the WEC 44 co-main event, while Aldo scored $26,000 (and the featherweight title) for his second-round knockout of champ Mike Brown in the event’s headliner.

Jose Aldo became the WEC’s new featherweight champion on Wednesday with a second-round TKO of title-holder Mike Brown in the main event of WEC 44, which took place at The Pearl at The Palms in Las Vegas.

Also on the Versus-televised main card, Manny Gamburyan topped fellow featherweight contender Leonard Garcia by unanimous decision, newcomer Karen Darabedyan scored a split decision win over former lightweight champ rob McCullough, Shane Roller submitted Danny Castillo with a third-round rear naked choke, and Kamal Shalorus knocked out Will Kerr in the opening round.

Will Kerr has been tapped to make his WEC debut as a late-replacement for an injured Alex Karalexis, taking on fellow newcomer Kamal Shalorus at WEC 44 on November 18 in Las Vegas.

Karalexis was forced to withdraw from the bout due to a hand injury, according to the WEC’s announcement. A timeline for his return was not released.

Palace Fighting Championship on Wednesday announced, through Sherdog, that the California-based promotion has added 18 additional fighters to its roster.
The newly-signed fighters are:

Gabe Ruediger
Alex Schoenaeur
Jason Von Flue
Lodune Sincaid
John Gunderson
Rambaa Somdet
Takumi Nakayama
Masahiro Oishi
Eddie Yagin
Roni Torres
Kamal Shalorus
Scott McAfee
Jeremiah Metcalf
Lavar Johnson
Jimmy Jarquin
Jason Carpenter
Justin Smitley
Bill Theofanopoulos