Most fight cards have one championship match on the card, but World Extreme Cagefighting stepped up with three title matchups at their latest show. The lightweight, welterweight and light heavyweight champions were showcased on Sunday’s card from The Joint at the Hard Rock Hotel and Casino from Las Vegas, Nevada.

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The main event featured the best battle of the night that should garner some Fight of the Year consideration. Carlos ‘The Natural Born Killer’ Condit (23-4) retained his WEC welterweight title with a fourth-round technical knockout victory over Hiromitsu Miura (9-5). Condit, defending his title for the third time, earned a hard-fought victory as a decided $6.00 ‘chalk,’ (bet $600 to win $100).

“Miura had me in danger, but he never rung my bell,” stated Condit in the postfight press conference. “I was able to push through and earn a hard-fought victory.”

The entertaining back-and-forth affair featured quality exchanges both standing up and on the ground. The fight would go to the ground briefly when Miura would execute his judo throws, but most of the early action occurred standing up. The high-paced affair ended at 4:43 of the fourth round when Condit connected with a knee before raining down some ground and pound shots until the bout was called.

“It was a tough-ass fight, one of the toughest fights of my career,” said Condit. “When I hit him with a knee and dropped him he kind of turtled up. I was just trying to finish him.”

Meanwhile, Brian ‘All-American’ Stann wasn’t as fortunate as Condit.

The WEC light heavyweight title saw a changing of the guard with the biggest upset of the night. Steve Cantwell avenged a 2007 defeat to Stann to capture the light heavyweight belt at 4:05 of the second-round with a technical knockout. Cantwell, prevailing as a decided $2.80 underdog (bet $100 to win $280), is the WEC’s newest champion.

Cantwell (6-1) was obviously elated at the postfight press conference.

“Winning the title is unreal,” said Cantwell. “You work so hard for something, but it probably won’t hit me until tomorrow when it all soaks in.”

Cantwell and Stann (6-1) have split their first two fights, setting up the possibility of a third installment between these light heavyweights. Stann dominated the first encounter that lasted all of 41 seconds.

“I’m surprised at how much punishment he took,” noted Cantwell. “He’s got a hard head, thank God that knee put him down.”

Stann, a Marine who was awarded the Silver Star in Iraq for bravery, was being heavily promoted by the WEC. These two fighters traded shots in the middle of the cage for two rounds, but the end came when Cantwell landed a good body shot and a knee that took the fight to the canvas. From there, Cantwell used some ground and pound until the fight was stopped.

“I’m willing to throw anything at anytime,” said Cantwell. “I threw a couple of combinations there at the end.”

Lightweight champion Jaimie Varner improved to 15-2 while cashing tickets as a $2.00 ‘chalk’ with a first-round technical knockout at 2:08 due to strikes over Marcus Hicks (8-1). Varner, a Phoenix native, took control of the contest with a couple Muay Thai knees that rocked his opponent. From there, the champion connected on more knees along with some kicks before finishing the contest with a straight right hand.

Varner was talking about his future in the postfight press conference.

“I’m going to try to stay active and continue to get better,” stated Varner. “It’s always been a hard road for me, but it makes me a better fighter.”

Two of the three title holders heading into this event were making their first title defense, while Condit successfully defended his belt a third time. Stann failed to defend the title he won back in March when he steamrolled Doug ‘The Rhino’ Marshall with a first-round technical knockout. Varner was defending his title for the first time since winning the belt with February’s knockout victory over ‘Razor’ Rob McCullough.

Brad Young can be reached at byoung@vegasinsider.com.