The merger between the UFC and WEC was long overdue and should lead to another popularity boom.
As part of a media conference call on Oct. 28, UFC president Dana White announced an upcoming merger between the Ultimate Fighting Championship and Zuffa’s other MMA brand, the World Extreme Cagefighting (WEC).
For many, including yours truly, the announcement is long overdue, but as White pointed out, "timing" was an issue; alas, it has finally been done.
Prior to giving my analysis, here’s a brief look at what also was discussed on the call:
- The WEC’s final show will be held on Dec. 16, and features a main event between lightweight champion Ben Henderson and challenger Anthony Pettis.
- The winner of the Henderson/Pettis bout will face the winner of the UFC 125 lightweight title bout between champion Frankie Edgar and Gray Maynard.
- Along with the WEC’s lightweight division, the UFC will also add the organization’s bantamweight (135 pounds) and featherweight (145) rosters to its existing organization.
- White also stated the UFC will soon add a flyweight division (125 pounds)
- Featherweight champion Jose Aldo and the winner of the Dec. 16 bantamweight title bout between champion Dominick Cruz and Scott Jorgensen will automatically become UFC champions, in their respective divisions.
- Jose Aldo is expected to make his UFC debut Jan. 1 at UFC 125, and it could be against Canadian Mark Hominick or American Josh Grispi.
- While the UFC is taking on the WEC roster of fighters (approximately 70 men), White said cuts may not happen soon; but as Damon Martin from MMA Weekly pointed out, fighters in the lightweight division would likely have a shorter leash, due to the division being so deep.
- The Ultimate Fighter reality show may soon feature the bantamweight and featherweight divisions, as well as coaches from the same weight classes.
- WEC staff will continue working under the Zuffa banner, likely with redefined positions, but according to White, there is plenty of work to go around.
- Changes to the Versus network deal will now see the UFC hold four shows on the American network, which will be broadcast in Canada on Rogers Sportsnet.
Analysis
This merger is a long time coming -- as heard and forecasted on MMA Connected and on The Showdown radio show, I’ve been hoping this would happen for quite some time.
With various complaints many fans have about ordering pay-per-views, where main event bouts had little implications on divisional rankings or with fighters too low in the UFC’s title mix, one way to fix this was to bring in the WEC champions and officially make them UFC champions.
In doing so, the organization will now have seven champions that they can easily alternate as headliners for various pay-per-view events, while also allowing one champion and top challenger to be a coach on The Ultimate Fighter, while not worrying about tying up the title and champion for an extended period of time.
This is obviously great news for the WEC roster of fighters, especially their elite, as their pay cheques will now increase, and deservedly so. Now that they are with the big show, here’s hoping they get paid big show money, as well as receive cuts from pay-per-view profits.
While obviously great news for the UFC, and its new roster of fighters, I can’t help but harken back (insert broken record joke here) to my original theory of doing what the UFC just did, but keeping the WEC around as a feeder league.
Again, merge the WEC champions and top contenders into the UFC, while using the WEC has a promotion that highlights up-and-coming fighters from all weight classes.
Instead of the UFC cutting fighters after two or three losses, send them to the WEC. Any fighters who are on the brink of making it to the big show, make them fight another contender or former UFC fighter, via the WEC.
Think of all the recent UFC cuts (see Patrick Cote), and instead of releasing them to be eventually scooped up by the competition, they could remain under the Zuffa banner. If they then lose under the WEC banner, go ahead and release them.
At UFC 113 Dana White liked the theory -- three events later, he dismissed it.
Now, over five months since that conversation, we have Thursday’s news.
Either way, Thursday’s announcement is a great business move for the organization. It will reap many short- and long-term benefits. The last two WEC events will give us a strange sense of nostalgia, as we will be watching history unfold, knowing full well, that the organization is writing its final chapter.
But the great thing is that 2011 is going to be an exceptional year for UFC and for MMA in general.
The sport will see another boom in popularity, as I believe their pay-per-view buy rate will increase, considering that, in a near perfect world, every event will have a championship title fight, plus a main card that will also likely showcase top divisional contenders from seven different weight classes.
One can just imagine how stacked these pay-per-view broadcasts will be and when they add the flyweight division, it will only get sweeter.
