FanHouse Jamie Varner

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."

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.

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.

On this week's edition of The MMA Hour, we were joined in studio by heavyweight rising star Rolles Gracie Jr. The 31-year-old is the biggest Gracie to compete in MMA, and most recently improved to 3-0 when he defeated Peter Graham at Art of War 14 last month. Gracie talked about where he will fight next and living up to his famous last name.

Later in the show, we spoke to WEC lightweight champion Jamie Varner about Saturday's interim title fight between Donald Cerrone and Benson Henderson, as well as his road to recovery. Watch or listen to the show below.

Jamie Varner's mixed martial arts career is not in jeopardy. The WEC lightweight champion's broken right hand has still not healed since his January title defense against Donald Cerrone forcing the organization to book an interim title match between Cerrone and rising star Ben Henderson.

However, when FanHouse contacted Varner to comment on a Youngstown Vindicator report stating he "may never fight again," Varner simply said, "That's bullsh*t."

For most MMA fighters, a nickname is just something designed to make them sound tough as their names are called during pre-fight introductions. For Donald "Cowboy" Cerrone, the No. 1 lightweight contender in World Extreme Cagefighting, his nickname is a way of life. Cerrone was a cowboy before he was a fighter, and during his youth in Colorado he took up the sport of bull riding.

Cerrone will return to the cage on June 7 at WEC 41 (televised on Versus), but before then he will return to the bull riding arena when he makes an appearance at the May 16 Professional Bull Riders event in Pueblo, Colorado. Cerrone says he won't be climbing back on a bull any time soon because he doesn't want to risk an injury that could derail his MMA career, but when I interviewed him Tuesday, he talked about his passion for both sports. The full interview is below.

Urijah Faber, who was considered World Extreme Cagefighting's best fighter and biggest star until his stunning loss to Mike Brown three weeks ago, will be getting back in the cage soon.

And there's great news for MMA fans: His next fight will be a rematch with Jens Pulver on the undercard of the January 25 WEC 38 show. Faber and Pulver previously had a Fight of the Year candidate at WEC 34, and although they're now both coming off losses, seeing them in the cage together again should be great.

MMA Weekly reports that Faber and Pulver haven't signed bout agreements yet but have verbally agreed to the rematch, in which Faber will be heavily favored. The main event at WEC 38 is expected to feature lightweight champion Jamie Varner defending his title against Donald Cerrone.

WEC 38 takes place the day after Affliction: Day of Reckoning, which features a main event of Fedor Emelianenko vs. Andrei Arlovski. With the Affliction show scheduled for Anaheim and the WEC show set to take place in San Diego, it should be a very good weekend for MMA fans in Southern California.

NOTE: There's a conflicting report saying Faber will likely fight Jose Aldo.

Days after a great show in Sacramento that saw bantamweight champion Miguel Torres and featherweight champion Urijah Faber defend their belts, World Extreme Cagefighting announced that its lightweight, welterweight and light heavyweight champions will fight in August in Las Vegas.

Welterweight champ Carlos Condit will take on Japan's Hiromitsu Miura, light heavyweight champ Brian Stann will fight Steve Cantwell and lightweight champ Jamie Varner will fight the undefeated Marcus Hicks. The fights are part of WEC 35 at the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas on Sunday, August 3. The card will be shown on Versus, which had one of its highest-rated broadcasts ever with Torres and Faber headlining WEC 34.

It's a good card, although it's not as good as WEC 34 -- Torres and Faber are the two best pound-for-pound fighters in the world, and no one would say that about any of the fighters on the WEC 35 card. Still, at a time when MMA organizations are popping up all over the place, this announcement is a reminder that as the owners of UFC and WEC, Zuffa has both the best and the second best MMA organization in the world.