A lightweight bout between rising prospect Anthony Pettis and UFC veteran Alex Karalexis has reportedly been verbally agreed upon for the un-aired preliminary portion of the nearly complete WEC 48 event in April.

WEC 48: "Aldo vs. Faber" takes place on April 24 at the ARCO Arena in Sacramento, Calif., and will retail at the same price as a UFC PPV at $44.95. The event is headlined by a WEC featherweight championship bout between champion Jose Aldo and challenger Urijah Faber.

Pettis is fresh off of a very impressive first round knockout win over Danny Castillo at last weekend's WEC 47 event. The KO win netted Pettis an extra $10,000, as he earned "Knockout of the Night" honors. He sports a 2-1 WEC record, with a win coming in his WEC debut over Mike Campbell.

Pettis has put together a nearly perfect 9-1 MMA record since turning pro in December 2007, scoring stoppages in all but one of his nine wins. He has competed the majority of his two-year career for the Gladiators Fighting Series, fighting six of his nine career bouts with the promotion.

Karalexis (10-4) was originally set to face undefeated prospect Zack Micklewright at WEC 48, however, Mickleweight was forced off of the event after suffering a broken ankle.

Karalexis will be fighting for the first time since defeating Greg McIntyre at WEC 39 in March 2009. He was originally slated to face Kamal Shalorus at this past November's WEC 44, however, he was forced off of the event with a broken hand.

Prior to the win over McIntyre, Karalexis lost back-to-back fights against Ed Ratcliff and Bart Palaszewski. He holds a 4-2 WEC record, with other wins in the promotion coming over Josh Smith, Thomas Denny and Olaf Alfonso.