WEC 48 Preview: Mike Brown, Manny Gamburyan Meet in Battle for Contention

Former WEC Featherweight champion Mike Brown (23-5, 5-1 WEC) will enter the cage on Saturday night in a quest to regain his former glory as he battles The Ultimate Fighter season five runner-up and Judo black belt Manvel Gamburyan (10-4, 2-0 WEC) in a match-up that will likely determine the next challenger to the crown. Brown is coming off a recent win over Anthony Morrison at WEC 46 in which he won via rear naked choke in the first round of action. Gamburyan has rattled off victories over Leonard Garcia and John Franchi at WEC 44 and WEC 41 respectively.

On paper, most fans will likely pick the former champion as the ultimate winner in this fight. Brown possesses one-punch knockout power, impressive strength, and a solid ground game in combination with good wrestling ability. While speed is something that Brown has issues dealing with, Gamburyan doesn't possess Faber-like quickness to give Brown a lot of problems in the striking department.

Delving a little deeper, there are some problems that Brown may have in this fight. First and foremost, Gamburyan was considered a very strong lightweight, but his size was always a problem as he was generally shorter than most of his competition. The size difference normally affected his distance striking, and his gameplans usually revolved around shooting at opportune moments and smothering opponents from a top position.

His gameplan hasn't changed much in the drop to 145 pounds, but he is, at the very least, a little more effective in punching with opponents. His takedown attempts could nullify some of the committed power punches from Brown as he won't want to be on his back against Gamburyan, but Gamburyan was knocked out by Rob Emerson at UFC 87, a result that could hint at what Brown may try to do.

It'll be interesting to see if Manny can put Brown on his back, but I'm much more curious to see how Brown's strength and abilities off his back work against a guy who likes to keep his posture down and remain active enough to win rounds in that fashion.

But when it comes to picking a favorite here, I have to go with objective reasoning. Mike Brown has way more tools in his arsenal, and he's proved it in his career. He not only has immense power in his hands, but his ground abilities in combination with the strength make him a real threat on the ground. I don't know if I see him working the ground against Manvel, but the striking portion of this fight won't be advantageous for Gamburyan.

Gamburyan madly went for takedowns against Garcia, and he eventually was able to score those takedowns. I think it'll be a much harder task for him against Brown, and Brown will land some power. I'll take Mike Brown via TKO.