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Tickets for WEC 46: “Varner vs. Henderson,” which is slated for Arco Arena in Sacramento, Calif., on Jan. 10, 2010, will go on sale to the general public on Saturday, Nov. 7 at 10 a.m. PT.

WEC Newsletter subscribers, naturally, will be able to scoop up tickets prior to them being available for public consumption two days earlier on Thursday, Nov. 5 at 10 a.m. PT.

WEC 46 will feature the return of Jamie “C-4″ Varner, defending his lightweight belt against 155-pound interim champion Benson “Smooth” Henderson in the main event of the evening.

The Arco Arena is a venue with which the promotion is extremely familiar with thanks in larger part to former featherweight champion and local fan favorite, Urijah Faber. “The California Kid,” who is also coming back from a hand injury like Varner, will collide with top-ranked contender Raphael Assuncao in the co-featured fight of the night.

WEC 46 tickets can be purchased through StubHub.com (Note: StubHub often has seats available even if the event is “sold out”). It will also be available to watch on Versus at 9 p.m. ET on fight night.

For more on WEC 46 stay dialed in to MMAmania.com and remember to check out the latest WEC news and rumors right here.

World Extreme Cagefighting (WEC) today announced its first show of the New Year, which will feature the return of Jamie Varner, defending his lightweight belt against 155-pound interim champion, Benson “Smooth” Henderson, in the main event of the evening.

WEC 46: “Varner vs. Henderson” is scheduled for the Arco Arena in Sacramento, Calif., on Jan. 10, 2010.

It’s a venue with which the promotion is extremely familiar thanks in larger part to former featherweight champion and local fan favorite, Urijah Faber. “The California Kid,” who is also coming back from a hand injury like Varner, will collide with top-ranked contender, Raphael Assuncao, in the co-featured fight of the night.

The line up thus far is one that WEC General Manager, Reed Harris, is thrilled to promote.

Here’s a snip:

“ARCO Arena is one of our favorite venues to bring fights, the fans in Sacramento are some of the best. The world title bout between Varner and Henderson is a perfect way to start off the New Year. The title fight, plus the return of Urijah, makes this an instant winter classic.”

Henderson (10-1) defeated Donald “Cowboy” Cerrone at WEC 43 via razor-thin unanimous decision to successfully capture the interim gold. “Smooth” avoided countless submission attempts from Cerrone, while inflicting good damage in the early rounds. The victory was a large upset, introducing the relatively unknown Henderson to the fans of the sport.

A product of Arizona’s MMA Lab, Henderson has managed to string together nine straight victories since his only loss, which was to Chad Klingensmith at Ring of Fire 27: “Collision Course” in Dec. 2006. He is perfect (3-0) in the WEC with victories over Shane Roller, Anthony Njokuani and Cerrone.

Varner (16-2) gained the lightweight belt back in 2006 when he defeated “Razor” Rob McCullough via technical knockout. “C-4” has gone on to defend his belt twice with victories over Marcus Hicks and Donald Cerrone.

Varner has been sidelined for some time now because of injuries he sustained during the battle at WEC 38 in earlier this year January against Cerrone. One year later, Varner will finally be able to put his belt on the line again, hoping to defend it for a third time.

Stay tuned to MMAmania.com for breaking news and updates on WEC 46.

During last Saturday night’s five-round, back-and-forth WEC 43 main event between Ben “Smooth” Henderson and Donald “Cowboy” Cerrone for the promotion’s interim lightweight title, both fighters left absolutely everything they had inside the cage.

It was an epic battle for the ages and a surefire candidate for “Fight of the Year” honors.

For Henderson the win meant he had earned himself an opportunity to unify the 155-pound title with a showdown opposite injured champion, Jamie Varner, during a future WEC event set for “The Worn’s” hometown of Phoenix, Ariz., in December.

It is a match up that would certainly have a great chance to live up to the high standard the WEC has set for main event fights so far in 2009.

However, Varner and Cerrone have waged a fierce verbal battle outside the cage since their initial encounter at WEC 38 earlier this year, which ended ugly (and early) via split decision because of fifth round foul from which Varner could not recover. He got the win from the judges, but he was ridiculed in the court of public opinion for how he handled the decision afterward.

So it seemed that with a win over Cerrone, Henderson had spoiled the chances of there being a grudge match anytime soon between “Cowboy” and Varner.

Not so fast.

It now appears that the fight between Henderson and Varner has possibly been put on hold. And there’s a chance that “Cowboy” could be stepping in as a replacement for Henderson, who suffered extreme dehydration after the fight last weekend.

In fact, Henderson reportedly collapsed in the locker room shortly after the match and was rushed to more than one hospital, needing multiple IVs to recover.

In addition, Henderson injured his left eye after eating an upkick in the last minute of the fight that split it open that will need time to heal.

Perhaps more time than the WEC is willing to wait.

Earlier today on ESPNs “MMA Live,” guest host and teammate of Donald Cerrone at Greg Jackson’s Submission Fighting, Rashad Evans, had this to say when asked if it looked like Henderson and Varner would still be fighting in December to unify the belts even in spite of “Smooth’s” medical issues:

“No it doesn’t, and it looks like “Cowboy” is going to go ahead and get the fight with Varner.”

Interesting “unofficial” news if it is indeed true. And either way, the promotion is in a win-win situation — Varner, Cerrone and Henderson all fighting, regardless of the order, have all the ingredients for more fireworks.

Stay tuned to MMAmania.com for more on this developing story.