Aldo-Gamburyan Agreed for WEC 51

Jose Aldo file photo: Dave Mandel/Sherdog.com

World Extreme Cagefighting featherweight champion Jose Aldo and Manny Gamburyan have agreed to meet at the not-yet-announced WEC 51 on Sept. 30 at the 1st Bank Center in Broomfield, Colo.

MMAWeekly.com was the first to announce the headlining bout on Monday, while Sherdog.com has independently confirmed it through sources with knowledge of the event.

With a diverse striking arsenal and speed at his disposal, Aldo, 23, catapulted onto pound-for-pound lists with a string of decisive technical knockout victories in 2009. In June 2009, the Nova Uniao student took out established featherweight Cub Swanson with a brutal eight-second knee at WEC 41 in Sacramento, Calif. Aldo earned the promotion’s 145-pound title with a decisive second-round TKO over American Top Team’s Mike Thomas Brown at WEC 44 that November. He defended the crown against former champion Urijah Faber at WEC 48 last April in Sacramento, Calif., battering the hometown favorite with leg kicks for five round.

Aldo has rattled off 10 straight victories -- seven of them in the WEC cage -- since 2006.

“Ultimate Fighter 5” runner-up Gamburyan has made the most of his drop down to the featherweight division in mid 2009, notching three straight wins for the promotion against John Franchi, Leonard Garcia, and former champion Mike Thomas Brown at WEC 48 in April. The 29-year-old Armenian fighter’s first-round knockout of Brown earned him a shot at Aldo’s title.

WEC 51 will air live on Versus.