WEC 44: Jose Aldo TKOs Mike Brown to Become New WEC Champion

Jose Aldo defeated Mike Brown by TKO to win the WEC featherweight championship Wednesday in the main event of WEC 44 in Las Vegas.

Aldo finished Brown on the ground with a barrage of unanswered punches at the official time of one minute and 20 seconds into the second round.

"Mike was really strong," said former UFC heavyweight Pedro Rizzo, acting as translator for Aldo. "He respected him a lot in the beginning of the fight and had to wait for the right moment to finish the fight. So when he found the space, he threw all the punches."

Aldo ended Brown's streak of two successful title defenses with his explosive striking, forcing Brown to look to bring the fight to the ground. Aldo defended the takedown attempts and when Brown missed on a huge hook, Aldo kept Brown on ground and secured full mount. Brown gave up his back and Aldo locked in both hooks and punched his way to call for the referee stoppage.

"He had a great night," Brown said. "He was landing the shots and I wasn't. That's how the game is."

Aldo's TKO earned him a $10,000 bonus for Knockout of the Night and improved his record to 16-1, with all six of his WEC wins by TKO. Meanwhile, Brown fell to 22-5, suffering his first loss in four years.

Notes: Shane Roller won Submission of the Night for his rear-naked choke over Danny Castillo ... Cub Swanson and John Franchi each raked in a $10,000 bonus for taking part in the Fight of the Night.

WEC 44 Results:

Jose Aldo def. Mike Brown via TKO (punches) - R2, 1:20 (live blog)
Manny Gamburyan def. Leonard Garcia via unanimous decision
Karen Darabedyan def. "Razor" Rob McCullough via split decision
Shane Roller def. Danny Castillo via submission (rear-naked choke) - R3, 3:32
Kamal Shalorus def. Will Kerr via TKO (punches) - R1, 1:26
LC Davis def. Diego Nunes via unanimous decision
Cub Swanson def. John Franchi via submission (guillotine) - R3, 4:50
Antonio Banuelos def. Kenji Osawa via unanimous decision
Ricardo Lamas def. James Krause via unanimous decision
Frank Gomez def. Seth Dikun via unanimous decision