Weekend Primer: Strikeforce, WEC 45

Standing in line at a store, surrounded by harried and fatigued people who bear holiday weight, it is easy to become miserable. Then I remind myself that it could be worse: I could be spending the season with gauze packing my broken nose, or staring at a dispassionate doctor going over post-operative instructions.

Mixed martial arts take no breaks for Christmas: if anything, it shifts into another gear. Saturday brings two cards going head-to-head, with World Extreme Cagefighting’s 45th installment vying for an audience opposite Showtime’s Strikeforce bill and the semi-exciting return of Cung Le. While neither one is all that spectacular -- particularly with Robbie Lawler’s late exit and an absence of any WEC belts on the table -- but it’s still a nice pause before the real violence begins: next weekend’s gift returns.

What: WEC 45, a 10-bout card from the Pearl at the Palms in Las Vegas, Nevada; Strikeforce: Evolution, a nine-bout card from the HP Pavilion in San Jose, California.

When: Saturday, December 19, at 10 p.m. ET on Versus (WEC) and Showtime (Strikeforce), with a WEC replay December 26 at 11 p.m. ET.

Why You Should Care: Because the clock is running down on Cung Le’s fight career, and any chance to see him shouldn’t be resented; because Ronaldo "Jacare" Souza’s North American debut could signal the beginning of tremendous ground problems for Strikeforce’s middleweight division; because the ridiculously young Chris Horodecki has found a perfect place in the WEC to nurture his talents; and because Donald Cerrone’s fall Fight of the Year candidate with Benson Henderson have earned him the benefit of the doubt when it comes to his main event appearances.

Fight of the Night: Strikeforce’s Le/Scott Smith, with Le’s pragmatic style forced into action by an opponent who comes swinging hammers.

Sleeper Fight of the Night: WEC’s Joseph Benavidez vs. Rani Yahya, with Benavidez playing a 135 pound Mark Kerr to Yahya’s Royce Gracie.

Hype Quote of the Weekend: "I just go out there and have fun, do my thing, and satisfy the people who stay down with me, and my family. That's who I'm fighting for. Everybody else? All the bandwagon jumpers who talk [expletive] and then I prove myself to them, and then they jump on the bandwagon, they can go [expletive] themselves. I don't give a damn about them. I'm fighting for myself and for those who believe in me." -- Muhammed Lawal, to Yahoo’s Maggie Hendricks