WEC 52 Back On Track After Merger Shake-Up

Erik Koch: Jeff Sherwood | Sherdog.com

World Extreme Cagefighting has added two new bouts to its Nov. 11 card, shuffling the lineup near the top to accommodate the pending UFC-WEC merger.

WEC 52, which takes place at the Palms Casino Resort’s Pearl Theater in Las Vegas, will showcase a co-main event between Chad Mendes and Javier Vazquez, as well as a featherweight scrap featuring Erik Koch and Francisco Rivera.

The co-main event was initially to be a match-up between Josh Grispi and Erik Koch, until Grispi was pulled from the card in order to square off against Jose Aldo at UFC 125 for the newly-minted UFC featherweight title. The slot will instead be filled by the Mendes-Vazquez bout.

A standout from Urijah Faber’s Team Alpha Male, Mendes is undefeated in eight professional outings, and is currently 3-0 in WEC competition, having defeated Erik Koch, Anthony Morrison and Cub Swanson. The former Pac-10 Wrestler of the Year is a veteran of both Palace Fighting Championships and Tachi Palace Fights, and holds half of his career wins by either knockout or submission.

Vazquez is a former EliteXC talent who has gone 2-2 since joining the WEC in 2009. The Cuban American had only lost once prior to stepping into the blue cage, but was greeted rudely by WEC competition upon his arrival. Vazquez dropped his first two bouts to L.C. Davis and Deividas Taurosevicius, but the Brazilian jiu-jitsu black belt would rebound strong, earning two submission victories in 2010 to even his promotional record.

Koch now slides one fight down the ladder of importance and finds himself with a new opponent in Rivera. Koch’s loss to Mendes at WEC 47 stands as the only defeat in a career that began in 2007. The 22-year-old ran off nine straight victories before losing to Mendes. The Roufusport product owns seven of his 10 career victories by submission and has never been finished.

WEC newcomer Rivera is the owner of a perfect 5-0 record, with three of those wins coming by way of first-round knockout. Even more impressive, those knockouts each came in under a minute.

WEC 52 will be headlined by former 145-pound king Faber's bantamweight debut, where he takes on Japanese slugger Takeya Mizugaki.