“WEC 53: Henderson vs. Pettis” takes place Dec. 16 in Glendale, Arizona and is headlined by a pair of title fights. In the main event of the evening, WEC lightweight champion Ben Henderson takes on Anthony Pettis. The winner of the title fight will move on to face the winner of the Frankie Edgar/Gray Maynard UFC lightweight title bout that takes place at UFC 125 in a bout to unify the two lightweight titles.
The co-main event of the evening will see WEC bantamweight champion Dominick Cruz and Scott Jorgensen face off. The winner will become the first UFC bantamweight champion, and UFC President Dana White recently confirmed that the winner will leave with a UFC championship belt.
Donald Cerrone vs. Chris Horodecki, Bart Palaszewski vs. Kamal Shalorus and Danny Downes vs. Tiequan Zhang round out the Versus-televised card. The highlight of the preliminary card is a lightweight bout between Shane Roller and Jamie Varner.
The full WEC 53 card includes:
TELEVISED CARD (VERSUS)
Ben Henderson vs. Anthony Pettis (WEC lightweight title)
Dominick Cruz vs. Scott Jorgensen (WEC/UFC bantamweight title)
Donald Cerrone vs. Chris Horodecki
Bart Palaszewski vs. Kamal Shalorus
Danny Downes vs. Tiequan Zhang
PRELIMINARY CARD
Shane Roller vs. Jamie Varner
Ivan Menjivar vs. Brad Pickett
Ken Stone vs. Eddie Wineland
Danny Castillo vs. Will Kerr
Yuri Alcantara vs. Ricardo Lamas
Renan Barao vs. Chris Cariaso