Jamie Varner vs. Donald Cerrone Rounds Out a Big WEC 51 Card

The long-awaited rematch between World Extreme Cagefighting rivals Jamie Varner and Donald Cerrone is set for WEC 51 on September 30, a major fight card that will demonstrate the WEC's ability to put on big events even as its top star, Urijah Faber, nurses a leg injury.

Varner announced the Cerrone rematch on his web site, and the addition of that fight not only makes WEC 51 one of the best fight cards of the rest of the year in MMA, it also provides some hints about where the WEC is headed for the rest of the year, and what a future WEC pay-per-view card might look like.

Here's how the five-fight WEC 51 card on Versus is shaping up:

Jose Aldo vs. Manvel Gamburyan
Miguel Torres vs. Charlie Valencia
George Roop vs. Chan Sung Jung
Mark Hominick vs. Leonard Garcia
Jamie Varner vs. Donald Cerrone

That's not just a good card in and of itself, it's also a card for which the "what's next" question practically answers itself. The winners of Aldo-Gamburyan, Torres-Valencia and Varner-Cerrone will all be riding high in their respective divisions, and whoever wins those fights would be worthy additions to a future WEC pay-per-view card. And if Jung and Garcia both win, you can pretty much guarantee that the next WEC pay-per-view will feature a rematch of the wild Jung-Garcia slugfest on the April WEC card.

That Jung-Garcia fight was on the Spike TV lead-in to the WEC's first pay-per-view broadcast, and the fight has been credited with convincing large numbers of last-minute buyers to purchase the card. If things play out as expected for the WEC over the next few months, they won't need to rely on too many last-minute buyers next time around. The promotion has a lot of great fights coming up.