WEC 155: Lightweights in the UFC
Ben Henderson, left, successfully defended his lightweight title against Donald Cerrone at WEC 48 in Sacramento. (April 24, 2010) Credit: WEC Photo
The lightweight roster numbers 52 on the UFC's website. Of those 155-pounders, 10 were part of the WEC when parent company Zuffa finally decided to roll the smaller promotion into its big brother last October.
That brought about some chatter that the WEC lightweights were just that -- lightweights in comparison to their counterparts in the big bad UFC.
Such talk returned last week during the pre-fight coverage of Jim Miller vs. Ben Henderson, the tough UFC veteran on a seven-fight win streak vs. a former WEC champion with only one fight wearing the black gloves.
Henderson quickly dispelled any inferiority complexes fans may have had with a thorough dispatching of Miller. Earlier in the evening, Donald "Cowboy" Cerrone, another former WEC champion, put the hurt on Charles Oliveira, a highly-regarded Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu specialist in the UFC. First-round TKO ... and a $65,000 bonus for knockout of the night.
Since the merger became official in January 2011, WEC lightweights are 8-7 in the UFC. Slightly above average. But the top tier of WEC lightweights -- Henderson, Cerrone and Anthony Pettis -- are 5-1. Here's a complete breakdown (of a rather small sample size):
| WEC LIGHTWEIGHTS IN UFC | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Fighter | Overall Record | WEC | UFC |
| Ben Henderson | 14-2 | 5-1 | 2-0 |
| Anthony Pettis | 13-2 | 5-1 | 0-1 |
| Donald Cerrone | 16-3 (1 NC) | 6-3 (1 NC) | 3-0 |
| Anthony Njokuani | 14-5 | 4-3 | 1-1 |
| Kamal Shalorus | 7-1-2 | 3-0-1 | 0-1 |
| Shane Roller | 10-4 | 6-2 | 1-1 |
| Danny Castillo | 11-4 | 5-3 | 1-1 |
| Dan Downes | 8-2 | 1-1 | 0-1 |
| Edward Faaloloto | 2-2 | 0-1 | 0-1 |
| Bart Palaszewski | 35-14 | 4-3 | 0-0 |
| Totals (Pct.) | 130-39-2 (.756) | 39-18-1 (.661) | 8-7 (.533) |
