Varner vs Hednerson at WEC 46

World Extreme Cagefighting on Monday, via its official Twitter account, confirmed its previously reported Jan. 10 event at the ARCO Arena in Sacramento, Calif.

WEC 46 will feature Urijah Faber’s return bout against fellow featherweight contender Raphael Assuncao, as reported by MMAWeekly.com on Thursday. The promotion confirmed that a highly anticipated lightweight title unification bout between champion Jamie Varner (16-2) and interim titleholder Ben Henderson (10-1) would headline the event.

The lightweight unification bout was hoped for WEC 45 on Dec. 19 in Las Vegas, but there was no way Henderson, who was a little banged up after winning the interim designation on Oct. 10, would be ready in time. A fight between Donald Cerrone and Ed Ratcliff is the main event of that card.

Varner returns nearly one year from his last bout, a controversial split decision victory over Cerrone at WEC 38. He suffered numerous injuries during that bout that kept him out of action.

World Extreme Cagefighting has done well in its past two trips to ARCO Arena, both headlined by Faber. WEC 34 pulled in 12,682 fans and gate receipts of $738,855, according to the California State Athletic Commission. WEC41, where Faber lost to Brown, did slightly better, setting promotion records of 12,706 in attendance and gate receipts of $815,415.