WEC 53 will be aired live from Phoenix, Arizona this Thursday, December 16, 2010 at 9pm, which will be the final event for the World Extreme Cagefighting Championship before the merger with UFC.
The event on Thursday for the World Extreme Cagefighitng promotion will be its last event before its official merging with the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) in 2011. This WEC event will close the doors for the critically acclaimed WEC as it merges with UFC.
The last event will be televised on the Versus Network. WEC 53 plays a very important role in the picture since they will be considered as the lighter classes in UFC. In the co-main event of the evening at 135lbs, Dominick Cruz will be defending his title against his opponent Scott Jorgensen. The winner of the fight will be considered as the new UFC Bantamweight Champion.
On the event, Ben Henderson, WEC Lightweight champion, will also defend his title for the last time against his opponent Anthony "Showtime" Pettis. It is the main event of the card. Henderson won his title against Donald "Cowboy" Cerrone. It is considered as the Fight of the year but some people say that it is a controversial decision. He made a title unification bout against WEC Lightweight champion Jamie Varner and he made a rematch with Donald Cerrone. The fight was less exciting after Henderson finished the fight with a Guillotine choke within the first round.
The winner in this fight will be facing the winner of the 125lbs lightweight championship bout in UFC between Gray Maynard and Frankie Edgar. This is done to unite the WEC and UFC 155lbs belts.
Other main card will include several standout bouts and a lot of international flavor. The merger is what all the fans are looking forward to.