SACRAMENTO | WEC 41 had all kinds of backstories revolving around pressure.
General manager Reed Harris and vice president Peter Dropick expected the event to be the biggest card the promotion has ever put together. And they along with, presumably, Versus thought the June 7 telecast has a shot at setting the network's ratings record.
There was pressure on Noah Thomas, once unceremoniously booted from Zuffa's graces when he was kicked out of "The Ultimate Fighter" house in Season 5 by UFC president Dana White. He stepped up as a late fill-in for Chesterton's Eddie Wineland, who had to pull out of his fight with Frank Gomez with an elbow injury. Gomez wanted to show he's not the same person that he was on the reality show several seasons ago, but he wound up showing how to get pounded with elbows, caught in a choke and how to tap out.
But mostly, there was pressure on former WEC featherweight champion Urijah Faber, who lost by a unanimous decision to Mike Brown on Sunday.
Apart from the pressure of being the most recognizable fighter in World Extreme Cagefighting -- its poster boy, for lack of a better term -- Faber had the pressure of trying to reclaim his belt from Brown, who took it from him last November in one of the bigger upsets of 2008.
No pressure there, right? Then add to it the fact he had to do it with the weight of a full house of fans on his shoulders in his hometown of Sacramento.
Before the showdown, Faber said this fight being in his hometown might make a difference for him when he walks to the cage and the door closes. But the work leading up to the fight was the most beneficial.
"It's been good -- I think the biggest thing is it's convenient and it's fun to see everyone get excited about the fight," Faber said. "I can't go anywhere without somebody yelling out, 'Good luck,' or 'Kick his (butt),' so it's pretty cool to see the whole town come alive and come together."
Of late in the WEC, no one can speak of the pressure of fighting in front of the home crowd the way Miguel Torres can. Torres put his WEC bantamweight belt on the line against Takeya Mizugaki at WEC 40 on April 5 at the UIC Pavilion, just about 20 miles from his hometown of East Chicago, and with the added pressure of making the WEC's first trip to Chicago a successful one.
Torres said the distractions that come with the media attention leading up to the fight are one of the drawbacks.
"Coming up (before getting to the WEC), it wasn't that bad," Torres said. "But now, all the media coverage I've gotta do -- I've gotta do English and Spanish, so I've got double the words. It's in your hometown, you're fighting in the main event, everybody wants tickets. Everybody wants to talk to you and wish you good luck. And I'm down for that, but I've gotta train, too."
Torres was to be cageside June 7, able to enjoy the card before returning home to get back into his training camp for Brian Bowles, whom he will meet Aug. 9 at The Joint at the Hard Rock in Las Vegas -- this time on neutral turf without the hometown pressure.
