Anthony Pettis: "How do you like that to end the WEC?"
by Paulo Silva on December 17, 2010

The WEC did it their way.

An organization defined by exciting cards with faced-paced exciting fights, went out with more of the same and a cherry on top.

The card, which featured two title fights, saved its best for last with a hard-fought, battle back-and-forth battle between Benson Henderson and Anthony Pettis to crown the promotions' final lightweight champion.

The fight was sealed in the fifth and final round when Pettis landed an electrifying head-kick which floored Henderson, sending him reeling to the canvas. The kick was something out of a martial arts movie, with Pettis jumping high into the fence with his right leg and using the momentum to spring back toward Henderson while whipping the same leg around and catching Henderson flush on the side of his head.

Pettis, who went on to win the round and the fight via decision, will next face the winner of the UFC's next lightweight title fight between Frankie Edgar and Gray Maynard at UFC 125. He talked about his amazing kick post-fight.

"We practice that all the time," Pettis said. "I've got 10 more of those kicks coming when I'm in the UFC. How do you like that to end the WEC?"

We like it just fine Anthony Pettis, welcome to the UFC.

In other action, Dominick Cruz was "dominant" in a unanimous decision victory over Scott Jorgensen in the evenings co-main event, retaining his bantamweight title without so much as dropping a point on any of the three judges score cards.

He's looking forward to facing Uriah Faber, the only man to hand him a professional loss, in his UFC debut.

"The future holds a lot of title defenses," Cruz said. "Every time I'm in here, I'm fighting for a new belt, and I'm going to keep that mindset. I'm ready to fight Urijah. Let's do it."

Below are the official results for WEC 53:

Preliminary Card:

 

 

Main Card:

 

 

 |  (43) Comments Wandering_Minstrel: AMAZING night of fights. mike5k: I stil have to watch Henderson/Pettis but the rest of the fights were great and from what I hear, the best was last. Good for the WEC and their fighters. I loved their events. D_V: I don't know about the potato chips. I think the first 3 rounds were probably 6 out of 10 worthy, which is a decent rating from me. The fourth round was superb, probably a 9 out of 10 and the last round was going much the same as the fourth until the craziest thing ever happened and it became a 10 out of 10 instant classic. The whole fight trended up too. That's what was so good about it. Some fights start out awesome and kind of get a little worse but are still overall pretty good, like Sanchez Guida, but this one got better with time and the crowd was into it too which made it good. GO HARD: i just wish Bendo would have gotten KOd from the kick. i wish Herb would have been closer and just jumped on him. The Hitman: Can't ask for a better way to go out unless Bendo got KOed by that kick. Crazy night of fights. Awesome. mike5k: I just watched the main event, definitely a great fight. The reversals late in the fight were awesome, great scrambles by both guys, submission attempts/defenses, and the kick, well, that was flat out amazing, Marker28: Pettis turned a bullshit move into a highlight. I see big paydays in his future. jbreemen: I thought this fight was impeccable, to say the least. Perhaps D_V is right when you break down the individual rounds, but in this case the sum is greater than it's individual constituents. It was back and forth and dead even going into the fifth. I wouldn't say the kick landed completely "Flush" Watch it in slo-mo. If Bendo would have been about 5 inches closer, I am confident it would have knocked him out cold. xdusty: that was a great fight. i thought bendo was winning the fight by a hair until that kick happened. that gave him the 5th rd and the fight. that kick will be in highlight films till were old men. The Hitman: I had it 2 a peice going into the 5th. Bendo was winning until that kick, then it was all Pettis. Good judging IMO. jbreemen: hahahah....the "anthony pettis kick" has it's own page on facebook that you can be a fan of, nice. GO HARD: Pettis is not waiting for maynard vs edgar... so u think they will give him an easy match?? fuck no rumor has it that Pettis vs Florian is in the works! GO HARD: so im posting bruno mars "marry me" , know random facts about oprah... , and say "thats the jam"... I thwear i am not gay!
WHO WINS THE MAIN EVENT AT UFC 162 BETWEEN ANDERSON SILVA AND CHRIS WEIDMAN?
Silva via Decision
Silva via TKO/KO
Silva via Submission
Weidman via Decision
Weidman via TKO/KO
Weidman via Submission
TAKE ANOTHER POLL!