Just a few thoughts after watching last night’s WEC 33 event.

• Brian Stann stood in the pocket and earned his title last night. After jumping out quickly it looked for a minute that Doug Marshall had a shot at finishing him against the cage. But Stann stayed calm and let Marshall throw his wild, looping punches and picked his spot with some precision counter-punches. If you blinked, missed the left hand that dropped the “Rhino” like a rag doll. If was hard to catch even on slow-mo replay. Nice showing from the new champ, who still has yet to see the second round.
• Chael Sonnen looked about as good as any fighter could look last night (except for that disgusting rib poking out of his left side). Sonnen controlled – no, dominated – every aspect of the fight and the judges saw it that way as well give him two 10-8 rounds. After watching Sonnen control Paulo Filho for most of their first fight, I think Sonnen would have won last night even if Filho hadn’t of pulled out the fight. Not to take anything away from Bryan Baker, but there was just nothing he could do last night.
• Steve Cantwell proved me wrong and overwhelmed Tim McKenzie. Look for Cantwell to get a rematch with new light heavyweight champion Brian Stann real soon.
• Man, did Marcus Hicks look scary last night or what? Ed Ratcliff is no slouch, but Hicks tore through him like Grant taking Richmond. Devastating punches kept knocking Ratcliff into the cage and onto the mat until he simply couldn’t take any more.
• Terrible ending to the Brock Larson vs John Allesio fight. If you didn’t get to see it, try to find it online in the next few days. Allesio landed a brutal, but illegal knee to Larson’s head while he was down giving Larson the DQ victory.

Now all eyes turn to the June 1 WEC 34 event which will feature the featherweight title fight between Urijah Faber and Jens Pulver. Another strong event from the WEC on Versus.