By Zach Arnold

For WEC management, they couldn’t have asked for a better showing than the performances they got from their top fighters on Sunday’s night event in Las Vegas, NV.

WEC 35, which aired on Versus, was headlined by a triple-main event of three title matches involving WEC Lightweight champion Jamie Varner, WEC Light Heavyweight champion Brian Stann, and WEC Welterweight champion Carlos Condit. Varner and Condit retained their titles, while Stann lost in a brutal fashion.

By far the biggest name on the card in terms of buzz was Brian Stann. You know his story by now, given his military background and the heavy media push he had received for being 8-0. Stann faced off against Steve Cantwell in a re-match. In the first encounter, Stann knocked out Cantwell in round one and made quick work of the young fighter. This time around, however, Cantwell came in and viciously took the fight toe-to-toe against Stann standing up. His mixture of kicks, punches, and angles destroyed Stann’s predictable one-dimensional, yet super-tough fight style. The end result was a tremendous beating issued by Cantwell, who became the WEC’s new 205 pound champion. While there were cries of a rubber match between the two men afterwards, make no mistake about it — Cantwell is a better fighter right now and he proved it. The win was so decisive that it exposed a lot of the weaknesses that hardcore fans have been snickering about with Stann for months.

Jamie Varner faced a tough challenger in Marcus Hicks. Varner, coming off of a big win against “Razor” Rob McCullough, took the fight to Hicks and won in round one to retain his Lightweight title. Hicks surprised Varner early in the fight by going for some takedowns and getting what he wanted. However, Varner’s striking power was simply too much for Hicks to take and Varner delivered a big beatdown of the challenger. If there was a theme for the WEC 35 show, it’s that the winners on the card won in such a fashion that there was no doubt in your mind who the better fighter was. Varner’s finishing sequence was explosive and highly entertaining to watch. He’s a serious player in WEC for some time to come.

Carlos Condit came into the WEC 35 show with a lot of momentum on his side. There were whispers in the press about whether or not he would transfer over to UFC’s 170-pound division. While it may be a little early for Condit to make the transfer over to Zuffa’s premiere league, there’s no questioning this man’s heart, determination, and skill. Condit retained his Welterweight title by defeating an extremely game and competitive Hiromitsu Miura. Miura, reminiscent of Yoshiro Maeda a couple of months ago, came into the fight as a prohibitive underdog. The only thing most fans knew about Miura is that he liked to stand-up and bang. What we ended up witnessing was a judo clinic from Miura, who took Condit down several times with judo throws and showed a masterful defensive game. Condit normally finishes off lesser opponents, so to see Miura took the beating he did and not only defend but counter-attack was a thing of beauty. The fight was such that both men came out winners afterwards (similar to Maeda vs. Miguel Torres) and Condit was very fortunate that he won the fight. The finish to the fight was a surprise, as Condit caught Miura with a jumping knee to the face and an exhausted Miura could not fight back. Both men were gassed out afterwards and the WEC Welterweight champion was very fortunate to leave Las Vegas still as the champion.

In a match that clearly had the feel of an eliminator and a loser-leaves-town fight combined, Brock Larson took it right to Carlo Prater and finished him off early in round one. It was the kind of dominating performance that Larson needed to have to keep his spot in WEC and he delivered. It was an explosive left punch that knocked Prater silly to the mat and then onslaught quickly ended afterwards. It was a bad loss for Prater, who needed to have a good showing to continue fighting in any sort of important slot in WEC.

Amongst the oddsmakers, 19-year old Josh Grispi was an underdog against ATT’s Micah Miller. However, in our WEC event preview on this site, we told you that Grispi was going to be one fighter to keep your eye out on because he’s that damn good. Grispi proved his doubters wrong again, as he caught Miller with a punch and got the referee stoppage after a flurry of punches in under a minute in round one. TV commentator Frank Mir was not happy with Herb Dean stopping the fight, but give credit where credit is due for the young man from the Bay State. He’s going to be very dangerous at 145 pounds in WEC and could certainly become a threat to Urijah Faber in a couple of years.

If you can catch a replay of the WEC 35 show, do it. Waste no time in making the effort to get a DVD of the show, if possible.

Main card results:

WEC Welterweight title match: Carlos Condit def. Hiromitsu Miura (R4 4′43 TKO)
WEC Light Heavyweight Title match: Steve Cantwell def. Brian Stann (R2 4′01 TKO)
WEC Lightweight title match: Jamie Varner def. Marcus Hicks (R1 2′08 TKO)
Bantamweights (135 pounds): Brian Bowles def. Damacio Page (R1 3′30 neck lock)
Featherweights (145 pounds): Josh Grispi def. Micah Miller (R1 0′50 TKO)
Welterweights: Brock Larson def. Carlo Prater (R1 0′37 TKO)