Cagefighting attempts to escape Ultimate shadow

The recent explosion in popularity of the Ultimate Fighting Championship has left many of the other mixed martial arts organizations with an identity crisis.

While most mainstream sports fans have seen UFC stars such as Chuck Liddell and Quinton "Rampage" Jackson making the national media rounds lately, many would be hard-pressed to name any of the numerous other MMA promotions.

Much of the UFC's success can be traced to its deal with Spike TV that has the organization being featured prominently on the network, including live events and a popular weekly reality show.

World Extreme Cagefighting took its first step down the path toward separating itself from the crowded field of contenders as it aired its first live event Sunday on Versus.

"It's the first time we can expose this to a national audience," WEC Vice President of Event Operations and Production Peter Dropick said. "We have had a lot of buzz in the MMA world, but we didn't have anywhere we could point people to see our product regularly."

In the main event of the card at the Hard Rock Hotel, Urijah Faber earned a first-round submission victory over Chance Farrar to maintain his featherweight title.

Faber has been at the forefront of the increased coverage, having participated in a nationwide media tour to promote the Versus debut. He sees the WEC's popularity wave surging soon.

"I think it's going to be overnight," he said. "I'm so happy to be a part of it and to be the main dude."

The partnership between Versus and MMA will not be limited to live events. The network will air a reality show. "Tapout" will feature the men behind the popular clothing line of the same name in search of new MMA up-and-comers for the company to sponsor.

Versus also will air footage of recorded WEC fights and other original WEC-related programs.

"We look at the WEC as something that will continue to grow and be as big or bigger than the UFC," Versus Senior Vice President of Projects and Production Marc Fine said. "The Versus brand is also growing, and this just brings more eyeballs to our network."

Zuffa LLC, which owns the UFC, also owns the WEC, but the two operate as separate organizations. The WEC is trying to establish itself as the premier organization in the lower weight classes. Faber is the champion of the 145-pound division, a weight class that is not a part of the UFC.

In developing talent in the lower weight classes, the WEC is doing its best to avoid the label of being dubbed a "minor league" to the UFC.

The WEC doesn't ignore the upper-weight divisions. Marine Brian Stann continued his run through the light heavyweight division with a first-round technical knockout of Craig Zellner.

Stann had finished each of his first two WEC opponents in the first round, but Zellner nearly ended the streak as he survived Stann's onslaught for most of the round before the fight was stopped with three seconds left.

Las Vegan Alex Karalexis took a majority decision over Josh Smith, despite having a point taken away with less than five seconds left because of an illegal stomp.

Brock Larson was supposed to fight Carlos Condit for the welterweight title in the main event, but an injury to Condit forced Larson to take on Kevin Knabjian in a fight relegated to the undercard.

Larson knocked Knabjian to the mat with a huge left, pounced on him and rained right hands on him until the fight was stopped after 27 seconds.

Also, Rani Yahya got a first-round submission win by choke over Mark Hominick.

The WEC will return to the Hard Rock for its second live Versus card Aug. 5.