The former WEC featherweight champion Urihah Faber needed to go directly to the hospital after his valiant fight with the reigning champion Mike Brown. He threw so many hard punishing punches that he actually broke his hand midway through the first round. He needed to opt out of attending the WEC 41 press conference in favor of taking care of his broken limb.

It became obvious by the second round that Faber indeed had some sort of hand problem as he was constantly throwing right elbow strikes instead of right punches, but he held in till the end, throwing elbow hits, kicks, punches with his left and even a choke in the fifth round. Brown took the battle in the end.

The x-rays show multiple injuries of varying degrees on at least two fingers. After his operation, he will need to give the injuries all the time they require to heal. If he starts back to fighting before they are fully healed, he will have a much larger chance of breaking them. If he takes a rest until he is notified by the doctors that he is totally and completely healed, he has a chance of those fingers being stronger than they were before they were broken. Which do you think he is likely to do?

Ten thousand dollars is a huge chunk of change to most of us, One that would be a huge boost to our home finances, one that might prompt us to buy a new car or maybe pay off some bills or any of a multitude of wonderful dreams, but ten thousand dollars is a performance bonus to four fighters. After a five round fight with Urijah Faber (that left Faber with badly damaged hands), Mike Brown went home with his title still intact. He received his prize for winning the fight, but he and Faber both went home with an extra ten thousand dollars in their pockets. This money was a bonus to them both for their performance in the ring.

In a bout prior to the one above, Aldo shocked the whole crowd by opening the bout with a punishing flying knee. The strike took Swanson to the mat, opening a massive wound over his left eye and leaving him unable to continue the battle. Aldo also received one of the four ten thousand dollar performance bonuses handed out that night.

Dikun was the final recipient of the four ten thousand dollar performance awards handed out, as he pulled off a slick flying triangle choke at the mid point of the opening round of his bout with Rolando.

When the bell rang and the two warriors met each other in the center of the ring, the air was dense with energy. Unlike most featherweight fights, this fight emitted it’s own energy due to the mindset of the fighters. Urijah Faber is not one to loose so fighting the likes of Brown had to build up his nervous tension. He tried from the first strikes of the first round to make this an early victory as indicated by his broken hand. The first round went to Faber but the fight went on.

Round after round, the fight continued with Brown trying to land hits on Faber but not getting in any substantial blows. Faber threw a barrage of kicks and punches but was unable to land a knockout blow.

Both fighters battled valiantly, landing punishing strikes and nearly knockdown blows. They battled through the five rounds and after consideration by the judges, Brown was chosen to remain the champion (until the third match up of these two). If Faber hadn’t compromised the fighting ability of his hands, who knows what could have transpired.

Mike Brown did indeed win the match, but his victory has to feel somewhat hollow to him due to the handicap of his opponent. Faber put up a courageous effort and kept punching till the end. It’s not a far stretch to think that Mike Brown would welcome yet another match to prove his honest worthiness of the crown.