WEC 40

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World Extreme Cagefighting mixed martial arts event event in 2009

title: "WEC 40" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["world-extreme-cagefighting-events", "2009-in-mixed-martial-arts", "mixed-martial-arts-events-in-chicago", "2009-in-sports-in-illinois", "events-at-uic-pavilion", "april-2009-sports-events-in-the-united-states"] description: "World Extreme Cagefighting mixed martial arts event event in 2009" topic_path: "sports" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WEC_40" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0

::summary World Extreme Cagefighting mixed martial arts event event in 2009 ::

::data[format=table title="Infobox MMA event"]

Field	Value
name	WEC 40: Torres vs. Mizugaki
image	WEC40poster2.jpg
promotion	World Extreme Cagefighting
date	April 5, 2009
venue	UIC Pavilion
city	Chicago, Illinois
attendance	5,257
previousevent	WEC 39: Brown vs. Garcia
followingevent	WEC 41: Brown vs. Faber 2
::

WEC 40: Torres vs. Mizugaki was a mixed martial arts event held by World Extreme Cagefighting on April 5, 2009 at the UIC Pavilion in Chicago, Illinois. The event aired live on the Versus Network.

Background

This was the first WEC event to exclusively feature fights in the lightweight, featherweight, and bantamweight weight classes. The organization's heavier weight classes had been folded into the UFC over the previous four months. World Extreme Cagefighting would maintain this weight class structure for the remainder of the promotion's existence.

WEC Bantamweight Champion Miguel Torres was to defend his title against Brian Bowles at this event, but Bowles was forced to withdraw from the bout due to a back injury, and was replaced by WEC newcomer Takeya Mizugaki. The Torres/Bowles bout was rescheduled for WEC 42 that August, where Bowles won the title by knockout.

Early reports suggested that Wagnney Fabiano could face former WEC Featherweight Champion Urijah Faber at this event, though he was later confirmed to be facing Fredson Paixao instead.

Anthony Pettis was scheduled to make his WEC debut at this event against Anthony Njokuani, but was forced from the card with a broken hand and was replaced by Bart Palaszewski.

Cole Province was originally slated to face Rafael Dias at this event, but bowed out due to an injury and was replaced by Mike Budnik.

A featherweight bout between Cub Swanson and Diego Nunes was once scheduled for this card, but was cancelled after Nunes suffered a hand injury three days prior to the event.

The event drew an estimated 470,000 viewers on Versus.

Results

|Bantamweight | Miguel Torres (c) |def | Takeya Mizugaki |Decision (unanimous) (49–46, 49–46, 48–47) |5 |5:00 |For the WEC Bantamweight Championship. |Bantamweight | Joseph Benavidez |def | Jeff Curran |Decision (unanimous) (30-27, 29-28, 29-28) |3 |5:00 | |Lightweight | Benson Henderson |def | Shane Roller |TKO (punches) |1 |1:41 | |Featherweight | Raphael Assunção |def | Jameel Massouh |Decision (unanimous) (30–27, 30–27, 30–27) |3 |5:00 | |Lightweight | Anthony Njokuani |def | Bart Palaszewski |TKO (punches) |2 |0:27 |This bout was featured on the main broadcast. |Bantamweight | Dominick Cruz |def | Ivan Lopez |Technical Decision (unanimous) (30-27, 30-27, 29-28) |3 |3:24 |Cruz landed an illegal knee to the head of Lopez while he was on the ground at 3:24 of round 3. Since Lopez was unable to continue, the bout was stopped and went to the scorecards. |Featherweight | Wagnney Fabiano |def | Fredson Paixao |Decision (unanimous) (30-27, 30-27, 30-27) |3 |5:00 | |Bantamweight | Rani Yahya |def | Eddie Wineland |Submission (rear-naked choke) |1 |1:07 |This bout was featured on the main broadcast. |Bantamweight | Akitoshi Tamura |def | Manny Tapia |Decision (unanimous) (29-28, 29-28, 29-28) |3 |5:00 | |Featherweight | Rafael Dias |def | Mike Budnik |Decision (unanimous) (30-27, 29-28, 29-28) |3 |5:00 |

Bonus Awards

Fighters were awarded $10,000 bonuses.

Fight of the Night: USA Miguel Torres vs. Japan Takeya Mizugaki
Knockout of the Night: Nigeria Anthony Njokuani
Submission of the Night: Brazil Rani Yahya

References

::callout[type=info title="Wikipedia Source"] This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page. ::