WEC 45 Results, Analysis, and Bonuses: Donald Cerrone Submits Ed Ratcliff

Donald Cerrone overcame a two-point deduction for repeated low blows and sunk in a rear naked choke in the third round to defeat a dejected Ed Ratcliff Saturday night in the main event of WEC 45 in Las Vegas, NV.

With the victory, Cerrone likely earned a title shot against the winner of the Jamie Varner/Ben Henderson undisputed Lightweight title fight in January. 

In other action, Scott Jorgensen moved one step closer to a Bantamweight title shot and Anthony Njokuani taught Chris Horodecki to never turn your back on an opponent.

For that and the entire recap of WEC 45, read on!

Donald Cerrone def. Ed Ratcliff via third round submission (3:47)

Fight of the Night: $10k each

In most cases where a guy lands three low blows and has a point deducted, you wouldn't expect that to fire them up. Not Donald Cerrone, who used the third low blow he landed on Ed Ratcliff as motivation and began an all-out assault that ended in a rear naked choke submission victory in the third round.

The story of the fight was Cerrone getting points deducted in the first and second round for low blows via knees. Ratcliff couldn't decisively win either round and thus, it came down to the third round to determine the winner.

The second deduction riled Cerrone up and he turned up the aggression level, out-classing Ratcliff who never did let his hands go as he has promised. Cerrone almost finished Ratcliff at the end of the round with a kimura and then a guillotine as time expired.

Cerrone was calling for Ratcliff to fight him in the third and continued the "Let's fight!" theatrics he displayed after the second low blow. Ratcliff looked defeated and once Cerrone took the fight to the ground and locked him in a variety of painful looking submissions, you knew it was over. At one point, Cerrone had a body lock and pulled Ratcliff's leg straight-up so his knee was basically in his face. He eventually got his back and sunk in the rear naked choke for the win. 

Quite a night for the Cowboy who now waits until January to see who's next for him: the guy who defeated him in October for the interim gold in Henderson or the guy who everyone wants him to face in Varner after their controversial last meeting.

Anthony Njokuani def. Chris Horodecki via first round TKO (3:33)

Knockout of the Night: $10k

This came down to a bizarre decision by Horodecki to turn his back and scamper away in an attempt to evade Njokuani. That turned out to be a terrible choice as he ate a kick to the face that stopped him in his tracks. Njokuani then landed enough unanswered punches from the standing position to call the fight.

With a seven-inch Anthony Johnson-like reach advantage, Njokuani bloodied Horodecki's face with jabs and used his long legs to avoid the takedown.

Horodecki's right eye was completely swollen after the fight. He got beat up pretty good. Njokuani's going to be an interesting prospect to watch in 2010.

Scott Jorgensen def. Takeya Mizugaki by unanimous decision

Fight of the Night runner-up: $5k each

Jorgensen looked good here in this unanimous decision win, likely earning the next shot against the winner of March's Bantamweight title bout between Brian Bowles and Dominick Cruz. Jorgensen owned the first two rounds with great striking, negating Mizugaki's equally impressive stand-up game.

However, Jorgensen secured takedowns at will and was aggressive in following up with strikes to the grounded Mizugaki. Anytime his opponent started connecting with some shots, Jorgensen took it to the ground quickly and made it count. Mizugaki won the third round by taking down Jorgensen repeatedly, but couldn't really do much to swing the fight in his favor and probably should have kept it standing.

All three judges had it 29-28 for SJ, as did I. 

Brad Pickett def. Kyle Dietz via second round submission (4:36)

Submission Of The Night: $10k

Pickett dominated the vast majority of his WEC debut, spending it grounded in top position on Dietz who was content to drive elbows into his head in defending. After a fairly even first round, Pickett survived a quick Dietz attack and eventually locked in a Peruvian necktie choke as the second round neared completion.

Brandon Visher def. Courtney Buck via first round KO (4:45)

This was a fun fight between two guys making their WEC debut. Buck went to the kicks early while Visher wanted to trade punches. It was back-and-forth with Visher hitting a big slam matched later by two straight mid-section knee strikes by Buck. Both guys were looking for kill shots, but Buck was wildly swinging and missing.

Visher eventually got it to the ground and got Buck's back, landing a few shots—one hard enough to turn Buck on his back. Visher unleashed hammer fists and flattened Buck for the win just before the end of the round.  

Joe Benavidez def. Rani Yahya by 1st round KO (1:35)

Benavidez rocked Yahya with a right hand and then immediately went into kill mode, landing three punches in a row for the stoppage. It looked premature at first as Yahya jumped up after the bell rang, but the replays showed otherwise as Yahya looked out after the second shot. Both guys were trading punches early, so this was going to end quickly and violently.

Show Notes

- Frank Mir in the cage is awesome. On commentary, not so much. Hearing him attempt to pronounce the names of the fighters on the Jan. 10 card was priceless. When Jens Pulver finally retires, can WEC secure him...please?

- Mike Brown was added to that Jan. 10 card? What? Huh? When?

- They did a great job in hyping the next WEC events. If you didn't know when the next event was and who was on it, you just weren't paying attention at all.

Josh Nason has published MMA, wrestling and boxing blog Ropes, Ring and Cage.com since 2007. He is a contributor to Fight Magazine and Bleacher Report and appears regularly on Fight Network Radio and Mauro Ranallo's Fight Show . Follow him on Twitter .