WEC 46 Preview

Mackens Semerzier vs. Deividas Taurosevicius

The Breakdown: The scrabble player’s dream fight features the most unexpected breakout star of 2009, Semerzier, taking on gatekeeper extraordinaire Taurosevicius. An interesting fight since Taurosevicius was on his way to an impressive WEC debut against Javier Vazquez at WEC 43 before gassing out in the last round and walking away with a contentious split decision win.

While Taurosevicius was able to use his striking to keep Vazquez at bay, Semerzier certainly won’t abide by those terms, as his submission skills were proven to an improbable degree after notching a first-round submission win over Wagnney Fabiano at WEC 43. Although Taurosevicius has made his name on the mat, he’d be best served relying on his striking and hoping he can keep Semerzier from dragging him into the deep end.

The X-Factor: The obvious question about Semerzier is whether his win over Fabiano was a reflection of his own skill or simply a case of carelessness on the part of Fabiano. Considering Semerzier’s success on the grappling circuit and little seen but well-documented boxing training, such talk loses steam and points to him being a legitimate albeit unexpected contender. Either way, Semerzier won’t have the luxury of entering this fight as a dark horse.

The Bottom Line: Count me in as a believer and expect plenty more to join in as Semerzier breaks even on the feet with Taurosevicus before getting him to the mat and cinching in another slick submission win. More importantly, it looks like Jose Aldo has someone new to worry about.