WEC Title on the Line Tonight 5/12

Tonight from the Joint in Las Vegas, the WEC will put on a 9 fight mixed martial arts event with the Light Heavyweight Title on the line. The World Extreme Cagefighting organization was purchased by the UFC the in January of this year and will use as a kind of "farm league" for fighters not quite UFC material...yet. The WEC Light Heavyweight Title Fight is worth looking at because the winner will likely make a move to the UFC. James Irving, who will be fighting on the UFC 70 card, was a previous WEC champion before moving up the the UFC. A little deeper look at Doug Marshall and Justin McElfresh along with my fight prediction: Doug Marshall is a brawler who turned pro as a heavyweight before dropping down to light heavyweight. He has heavy hands and of his seven fights, only one of them has gone past the 1st round. This could be a factor if they fight goes into the third round as Marshall's cardio is a bit suspect. He has fought against UFC veteran James Irving and Pride and UFC veteran Lodune Sincade, losing to Irving and beating Sicade. In his fight with Irving, Marshall showed that he has one hell of a chin. Irving landed a ton of punches and knees to the head which Marshall was able to absorb. Below is a video clip of that fight.

James Irvin vs. Doug Marshall There's not a whole lot of informatin out there about Justin McElfresh, no video clips to be found. What is known is that after losing his MMA debut, he has rattled off five wins. Also of note, he is 6' 6" which is pretty damn tall for a light heavyweight. Another thing that stands out is that he trains with Rich "Ace" Franklin. Prediction Marshall has definitely faced stiffer competition than McElfresh with a OWLR of 2.25 compared to McElfresh's .75 OWLR (OWLR is stat I came up with that helps to measure level of competition a fighter has faced. It stands for Opponents Win Loss Ratio, with the higher the number the better). He's got a great chin and I don't see McElfresh hitting any harder than Irvin, even with his reach advantage. The one thing going against Marshall is that all but one of his fights have ended in the first roung. With McElfresh training with Franklin, you have to expect he'll come into the fight with great cardio which could come into play if the fight goes past the first round. My Pick: Marshall by KO.