FanHouse Donald Cerrone

WEC lightweight champion Jamie Varner will fight interim titleholder Ben Henderson to unify the belts at WEC 46 on Jan. 10 at the ARCO Arena in Sacramento, Calif., the WEC announced Monday. Also, former champion Urijah Faber will fight Raphael Assuncao in a featherweight bout.

"The world title bout between Varner and Henderson is a perfect way to start off the New Year," WEC general manager Reed Harris said in a press release. "The title fight, plus the return of Urijah, makes this an instant winter classic."

A pair of bouts between lightweight contenders have been announced as co-headliners for the final WEC event of the year, WEC 45 on Dec. 19 at the Pearl in Las Vegas.

Donald Cerrone, coming off an interim title loss to Ben Henderson earlier this month, will take on Ed Ratcliff, while former IFL standout Chris Horodecki will make his WEC debut against Anthony Njokuani.

More than 5,000 boisterous fans attended Shogun Fights, the first sanctioned mixed martial arts event at Baltimore's 1st Mariner Arena on Saturday night.

"This crowd is unbelievable. I would dream to be on a card like this. I wish that I had this sort of crowd for my first fight," said MMA legend Renzo Gracie, who was joined in the crowd by Rickey Henderson, Lenny Moore and others. "This is the best crowd and event I've ever seen."

Check out the results and recaps below.

Lightweights Donald "Cowboy" Cerrone and Ed Ratcliff are scheduled to meet at WEC 45 on Dec. 19 in Las Vegas.

Sherdog.com was first to report the matchup and FanHouse has learned that the bout could possibly determine the next opponent for the winner of the title unification bout in early 2010 between champion Jamie Varner and interim titleholder Ben Henderson.

On this week's edition of The MMA Hour, we opened the show with the new WEC interim lightweight champion, Benson Henderson. "Smooth" discussed his epic five-round title victory over Donald Cerrone on Saturday night, his health status and when he expects to fight current lightweight champion Jamie Varner.

Later in the show, we talked to WEC lightweight fighter Alex Karalexis about training with Jared Allen of the Vikings, his upcoming fight against Kamal Shalorus at WEC 44 and why he would rather fight in the WEC than the UFC. Watch or listen to The MMA Hour below.

Ben Henderson's unanimous decision victory over Donald Cerrone at WEC 43 has been labeled by some as the fight of the year, and those who missed it on Saturday night can now watch it online for free.

The WEC announced Wednesday that both WEC.tv and UFC.com are carrying the fight. It will also re-air on Versus Thursday at 8 PM ET.

FanHouse has the official scorecards for the six fights that went to a decision at Saturday's WEC 43 in San Antonio, Texas.

The main event between Donald Cerrone and Ben Henderson has been much-discussed due to the close nature of the bout, but it was Raphael Assuncao vs. Yves Jabouin that had the head-scratchings scores of 29-28, 30-27 and 27-30.

Jamie Varner's comeback will have to wait a little longer.

While the WEC had hoped to stage a matchup between lightweight champion Varner and new interim champion Ben Henderson in December, such a scenario has essentially been ruled out by Henderson's camp after the five-round thriller that took place this weekend.

After the grueling 25-minute struggle, Henderson will need some time off before jumping back into a new training camp, and the title fight will take place in the early months of 2010, Henderson's manager Jason Genet told FanHouse.

Ben Henderson tenaciously outwrestled and thwarted submission attempts to beat Donald Cerrone for the interim WEC lightweight title Saturday in San Antonio, Texas.

Henderson won on the scorecards 48-47 three times in a close five-round fight. The second and third rounds belonged to Henderson, who maintained a distance from Cerrone's Muay Thai striking and picked his takedowns to score on punches. Cerrone came alive the final two rounds, better defending Henderson's takedown efforts and attempting kimura, armbar and choke submissions.

FanHouse has WEC results of WEC 43 featuring Donald Cerrone vs. Ben Henderson for the interim lightweight title at the AT&T Center in San Antonio, Texas.

The two friends will do battle for the opportunity to take on Jamie Varner at WEC 45 in December to unify the belts.

In the co-headliner, undefeated Team Quest member Dave Jansen will make his promotional debut against former lightweight title challenger Rich Crunkilton.