Leonard Garcia vs. Manny Gamburyan at WEC 44 in November

by Scott Haber on Sep 12, 2009 4:03 PM EDT

Greg Savage at Sherdog is reporting that a featherweight bout between Leonard Garcia (13-4) and Manny Gamburyan (9-4) is in the works for WEC 44 in Las Vegas in November:

Leonard Garcia will likely return to action against "The Ultimate Fighter" finalist Manny Gamburyan at a WEC event being planned for Nov. 18 in Las Vegas, according to a source close to the promotion. The fight has been verbally agreed to by both camps and should be official shortly.

Garcia was last in action in August at WEC 42 where he squeaked out a razor-thin split decision victory over Jameel Massouh, and managed to survive nearly being choked out by a D'Arce from Massouh in the process. "The Bad Boy" is looking to quickly regain his status among the WEC's 145-pound elite, and get another crack at champion Mike Thomas Brown after unsuccessfully attempting to dethrone him back in March at WEC 39.

A former student of Gokor Chivichyan's Hayastan dojo, Manvel "The Anvil" Gamburyan is looking to continue his fresh start at featherweight, after a moderately successful run in the UFC at lightweight where it was clear that he was undersized. Gamburyan made his WEC (and featherweight) debut back in June where he defeated John Franchi via unanimous decision at WEC 41. The stocky submission and ground-and-pound specialist is looking to establish himself at a serious threat to Mike Brown's title, and a win over Garcia will certainly accomplish that.

WEC 44 is expected to take place on November 19th, although the Sherdog report mentions a date of November 11th, and will be headlined by a featherweight championship match between Mike Brown and Jose Aldo.

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Manny’s gonna get KTFO me thinks.

by Zack Gobie on Sep 12, 2009 4:23 PM EDT reply actions

This should be a great event to watch if the WEC ever gets its shit together with Versus.

Ever tried. Ever failed. No matter. Try Again. Fail again. Fail better. -Samuel Beckett

by Scott C. Broussard on Sep 12, 2009 4:25 PM EDT reply actions

Great matchup

I’m thinkin Leonard takes this by (T)KO, but I wouldn’t be surprised if Gamburyan was able to sub him or win a top control decision.

Supporting all Las Vegas MMA. Xtreme Couture FTMFW.

'09 is the year of the FW's.

by ElliotMatheny on Sep 12, 2009 4:57 PM EDT reply actions

Good matchup for the WEC.

The mat is my church, the ground is my heaven, Jiu-Jitsu is my religion. And once you hit the ground you're in my world. My world is like the ocean, I’m like a shark and most people don't even know how to swim - Draculino

by Patrick Tenney on Sep 12, 2009 5:03 PM EDT reply actions

Hey Scotty

check your emails, Luke’s trying to get ahold of you.

Follow me on Twitter @KidNate

by Kid Nate on Sep 12, 2009 5:55 PM EDT reply actions

Manny can be brutal – he was manhandling everyone on TUF 5 and was on his way to beating Nate on the finale before he got injured. He just needs to improve his cardio and striking defense.

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by MMAEruption on Sep 12, 2009 7:38 PM EDT reply actions

agreed. The dude definitely has more fo a chance than I think most will give him.

If he comes out at a -200 or better (which i sure wuldn’t be surprised on) I’ll throw down a few units.

Even a broken clock is right two times a day.

by Chris Toffer on Sep 12, 2009 7:51 PM EDT up reply actions

That's the thing though

he seems to be relatively easy to hit, and all Garcia needs is 1 of those lunchbox bombs to land and he’s in the fight.

Supporting all Las Vegas MMA. Xtreme Couture FTMFW.

'09 is the year of the FW's.

by ElliotMatheny on Sep 12, 2009 10:38 PM EDT up reply actions

If this fight stays on the feet for any period of time, Manny is going to get Emerson’d again. But if he does what he does best and gets in Garcias face and starts throwing him around he could be a big problem for Garcia.

This shirt is "dry clean only", which means it's dirty.

by Sam Cupitt on Sep 13, 2009 2:55 AM EDT reply actions