WEC 51: Aldo vs. Gamburyan was a mixed martial arts

Mixed martial arts

Mixed Martial Arts is a full contact combat sport that allows the use of both striking and grappling techniques, both standing and on the ground, including boxing, wrestling, Brazilian jiu-jitsu, muay Thai, kickboxing, karate, judo and other styles. The roots of modern mixed martial arts can be...

 event held by World Extreme Cagefighting

World Extreme Cagefighting

World Extreme Cagefighting was an American mixed martial arts promotion. It was purchased by Zuffa, LLC, the parent company of Ultimate Fighting Championship , in 2006. In its final incarnation, it was made up of 3 weight classes: 135, 145 and 155 lbs. To accommodate the smaller...

 that took place on September 30, 2010 at the 1stBank Center in Broomfield, Colorado

Broomfield, Colorado

The City and County of Broomfield is a prominent suburb and tier of the Denver metropolitan area in the State of Colorado of the United States. Broomfield has a consolidated city and county government which operates under Article XX, Sections 10-13 of the Constitution of the State of Colorado. The...

. The event was the first that the WEC hosted in Colorado.

Background

Alex Karalexis

Alex Karalexis

Alex Karalexis is an American mixed martial artist of Greek descent. He has a professional record of 10 wins and 6 losses...

 was expected to face Zhang Tie Quan

Zhang Tie Quan

Zhang Tiequan, or Zhang Tie Quan , often anglicised to Tiequan Zhang, is a Chinese mixed martial artist, who fights as a featherweight. He has spent most of his career fighting in the Art of War Fighting Championship in his native China, but in 2010, he joined World Extreme Cagefighting in the...

, but was forced from the card with an injury and replaced by Jason Reinhardt

Jason Reinhardt

Jason Reinhardt is an American mixed martial artist. A professional MMA competitor since 2000, Reinhardt fought in regional promotions before signing with Zuffa in 2007...

. Reinhardt was then forced from the card after failing a prefight eye exam and replaced by Pablo Garza

Pablo Garza (fighter)

Pablo Garza is an American professional mixed martial artist who competes in the Featherweight division. A professional MMA competitor since 2007, Garza mostly competed in his regional circuit before signing with the Ultimate Fighting Championship to appear on The Ultimate Fighter: Team GSP vs....

. The Zhang-Reinhardt matchup would later be rescheduled as a featherweight bout for UFC 127

UFC 127

UFC 127: Penn vs. Fitch was a mixed martial arts event held by the Ultimate Fighting Championship on Sunday, 27 February 2011 at Acer Arena in Sydney, Australia. Due to the time zone difference it aired live on Saturday, 26 February in North America...

 following the UFC-WEC merger, with Zhang winning by submission.

Former Ring of Combat Bantamweight champion Nick Pace

Nick Pace

Nick Pace is an American professional mixed martial artist who competes in the bantamweight division. A professional MMA competitor since 2008, Pace mostly fought in the Ring of Combat promotion where he was the reigning and inaugural Ring of Combat Bantamweight champion until he signed with World...

 signed with the WEC and replaced the injured Clint Godfrey

Clint Godfrey

Clint Godfrey is an American mixed martial artist. He currently fights in WEC's bantamweight division.Godfrey was defeated in his WEC debut against former International Fight League featherweight champion Wagnney Fabiano at WEC 46...

, to face Demetrious Johnson

Demetrious Johnson (fighter)

Demetrious Johnson is an American mixed martial artist, who competes as a bantamweight in the Ultimate Fighting Championship. Johnson is ranked among the top ten bantamweights in the world by leading mixed martial arts publications...

.

The event drew an average of 486,000 viewers on Versus

Versus (TV channel)

Versus is a sports-oriented cable television channel in the United States. It was previously known as Outdoor Life Network and was launched on July 1, 1995, focusing on fishing, hunting, and other outdoor sports...

.

Preliminary card

• Bantamweight bout:   Demetrious Johnson
  Demetrious Johnson (fighter)
  Demetrious Johnson is an American mixed martial artist, who competes as a bantamweight in the Ultimate Fighting Championship. Johnson is ranked among the top ten bantamweights in the world by leading mixed martial arts publications...
  
   vs.   Nick Pace
  Nick Pace
  Nick Pace is an American professional mixed martial artist who competes in the bantamweight division. A professional MMA competitor since 2008, Pace mostly fought in the Ring of Combat promotion where he was the reigning and inaugural Ring of Combat Bantamweight champion until he signed with World...
  
  

Johnson defeated Pace via unanimous decision (30–27, 30–27, 30–27).

• Bantamweight bout:   Antonio Banuelos
  Antonio Banuelos
  Juan Antonio Banuelos is an American mixed martial artist who competes in the Bantamweight division.-Mixed martial arts career:...
  
   vs.   Chad George
  Chad George
  Chad George is an American professional mixed martial arts fighter best known for his run with World Extreme Cagefighting from 2009-2010....
  
  

Banuelos defeated George via unanimous decision (29–28, 29–28, 30–27).

• Featherweight bout:   Tyler Toner
  Tyler Toner
  Tyler Toner is an American professional mixed martial arts fighter. He currently fights in the featherweight division.-WEC:Toner was scheduled to make his World Extreme Cagefighting debut against Brandon Visher on December 19, 2009 at WEC 45...
  
   vs.   Diego Nunes

Nunes defeated Toner via unanimous decision (29–28, 29–28, 30–27).

• Lightweight bout:   Chris Horodecki
  Chris Horodecki
  Christopher Horodecki is a Polish-Canadian mixed martial artist. He is best known for his fights in the WEC and the IFL.-Mixed martial arts career:Horodecki was born in Poland and raised in St. Thomas, Ontario, Canada...
  
   vs.   Ed Ratcliff
  Ed Ratcliff
  Edward Norris Ratcliff is an American mixed martial artist. He was recently cut by UFC in January.-World Extreme Cagefighting:Ratcliff debuted at WEC 27, defeating Johnny Sampaio via TKO in the second round....
  
  

Horodecki defeated Ratcliff via split decision (28–29, 30–27, 30–27)

• Featherweight bout:   Mike Brown
  Mike Brown (fighter)
  Mike Thomas Brown is an American mixed martial artist. He currently fights as a featherweight in the Ultimate Fighting Championship organization and is a former WEC Featherweight Champion...
  
   vs.   Cole Province

Brown defeated Province via TKO (punches) at 1:18 of round 1.

• Lightweight bout:   Zhang Tie Quan
  Zhang Tie Quan
  Zhang Tiequan, or Zhang Tie Quan , often anglicised to Tiequan Zhang, is a Chinese mixed martial artist, who fights as a featherweight. He has spent most of his career fighting in the Art of War Fighting Championship in his native China, but in 2010, he joined World Extreme Cagefighting in the...
  
   vs.   Pablo Garza
  Pablo Garza (fighter)
  Pablo Garza is an American professional mixed martial artist who competes in the Featherweight division. A professional MMA competitor since 2007, Garza mostly competed in his regional circuit before signing with the Ultimate Fighting Championship to appear on The Ultimate Fighter: Team GSP vs....
  
  

Zhang defeated Garza via submission (guillotine choke) at 2:26 of round 1. This bout aired on the live broadcast following the Torres/Valencia bout.

Main card

• Featherweight bout:   Leonard Garcia
  Leonard Garcia
  Leonard Garcia is an American mixed martial artist who currently competes in the featherweight division of the Ultimate Fighting Championship. He previously fought for the UFC in the lightweight division before moving down to the featherweight division in the World Extreme Cagefighting...
  
   vs.   Mark Hominick
  Mark Hominick
  Mark Hominick is a Canadian mixed martial artist, former TKO Featherweight Champion, and current UFC fighter. Hominick is currently ranked as the #4 featherweight fighter in the world by MMAWeekly.-Mixed martial arts career:...
  
  

Hominick defeated Garcia via split decision (29–28, 28–29, 29–28).

• Featherweight bout:   Chan Sung Jung vs.   George Roop
  George Roop
  George H. Roop is an American professional mixed martial arts fighter. He was a cast member of SpikeTV's The Ultimate Fighter: Team Nogueira vs. Team Mir, winning his preliminary and first round fights...
  
  

Roop defeated Jung via KO (head kick) at 1:30 of round 2.

• Bantamweight bout:   Miguel Torres
  Miguel Torres (fighter)
  Miguel Angel Torres is an American mixed martial artist who fights for the Ultimate Fighting Championship organization. He is a former WEC Bantamweight champion. Prior to fighting with the WEC, Torres also held the bantamweight title for the US Shooto organization, as well as for the Ironheart Crown...
  
   vs.   Charlie Valencia
  Charlie Valencia
  Carlos Enrique Valencia is an American mixed martial artist . He has fought for the WEC and UFC in their bantamweight divisions..-Early life:...
  
  

Torres defeated Valencia via submission (rear-naked choke) at 2:25 of round 2.

• Lightweight bout:   Jamie Varner
  Jamie Varner
  James Christopher Varner is a mixed martial artist who fought for World Extreme Cagefighting. He is a former WEC Lightweight champion.-Ultimate Fighting Championship:...
  
   vs.   Donald Cerrone
  Donald Cerrone
  Donald Anthony Cerrone is an American mixed martial artist and Muay Thai kickboxer who fights out of Albuquerque, New Mexico and currently competes as a lightweight in the UFC...
  
  

Cerrone defeated Varner via unanimous decision (30–27, 30–27, 30–27).

• Featherweight Championship bout:   José Aldo
  Jose Aldo
  José Aldo is a Brazilian mixed martial artist, who competes as a featherweight in the Ultimate Fighting Championship where he is the first and current UFC Featherweight Champion...
  
   (c) vs.   Manny Gamburyan

Aldo defeated Gamburyan via KO (punches) at 1:32 of round 2 to retain the WEC Featherweight title.

Bonus Awards

Fighters were awarded $10,000 bonuses.

• Fight of the Night:   Donald Cerrone vs.   Jamie Varner
• Knockout of the Night:   George Roop
• Submission of the Night:   Miguel Torres