Karalexis vs. Zhang Completes 11-Fight WEC 51 Card

A lightweight bout between Alex Karalexis and Tiequan Zhang has been added to WEC 51, completing the 11-fight card.

The bout was made official by the promotion on Friday evening.

Karalexis last fought on the preliminary card of WEC 48, losing via submission to the fast-rising Anthony Pettis. Prior to that fight, Karalexis snapped a two-fight losing streak with a technical knockout win over Greg McIntyre. The two losses before that came to Bart Palaszewski and Ed Ratcliff, both via technical knockout.

The first Chinese fighter in WEC history, Zhang signed a multi-fight deal recently, according to MMAjunkie.com. Entering the promotion, Zhang brings an impressive 11-0 record with all of those wins coming via stoppage. The submission specialist has been essentially unstoppable since debuting in 2005, finishing all of his fights in the opening round of action.

The bout will be a part of the evening’s preliminary action on September 30. The event is set for Broomfield, Colorado and features a featherweight championship bout between title-holder Jose Aldo and top contender Manny Gamburyan. Also on the main card, Miguel Torres meets Charlie Valencia, while lightweight rivals Donald Cerrone and Jamie Varner are also set to do battle on the televised portion of the card.