Despite previous reports that bantamweight contenders Takeya Mizugaki and Damacio “The Angel of Death” Page would collide at WEC 45: “Cerrone vs. Ratcliff” from “The Pearl” at The Palms in Las Vegas, Nevada, on Dec. 19, the promotion recently announced that Japanese import Mizugaki (12-3-2) would instead face five-fight WEC veteran, Scott Jorgensen (7-3).
Jorgensen is coming off perhaps the best performance of his career earlier this month at WEC 43, stopping The Ultimate Fighter (TUF) alum Noah Thomas with strikes in the first round.
This will mark the Boise, Idaho, resident’s fourth fight in 2009. He defeated Frank Gomez back in January at WEC 38 via first round submission and he dropped a hard fought split decision to Antonio Banuelos five months later at WEC 41.
Mizugaki is widely considered to be one of the top five bantamweight fighters in all of mixed martial arts. He’s probably best known for his gritty five round decision loss to the one-time king of the 135 pounders, Miguel Torres, back in April at WEC 40.
The Japanese fighter was filling in on short notice for an injured Brian Bowles that night, and not many people really expected him to put up much of a fight against “Angel.” However, he not only put up a good fight, but he was right there with Torres blow for blow for most of the contest.
It was an eye opening performance for most of the WEC fans who were getting their first glimpse of him live.
Mizugaki has had one fight since then — a split decision win over grizzled veteran Jeff Curran at WEC 42 in August.
On paper this looks like one Mizugaki should win, but Jorgensen is coming off a stellar performance and he appears primed and ready to give the former number one contender all he can handle.
It all goes down live on the Versus network on Dec. 19. For more on WEC 45 click here.
