WEC-UFC Merger
This Thursday, October 28th, UFC President Dana White held a press conference to make what would be a monumental announcement for the world of mixed martial arts. Though much speculation was made as to what the huge announcement would concern, but it turned out that the HUGE announcement was mostly pertinent to the little guys. White announced that Zuffa, parent company of the Ultimate Fighting Championships was going to merge the World Extreme Cagefighting brand with the UFC starting in January of 2011. The move, which has been in the works for some time now, means that the UFC will add a spectacular bunch of fighters to its already stacked roster.
The addition of some top-notch fighters is not the only benefit of the merger, however. The merger means an end to the lighter division fighters being able to fight under the bigger spotlight than they are used to. It is no secret that the talent in the WEC was on par with that of any other organization in the world, but they lacked the media exposure that the likes of the UFC, Bellator, and Strikeforce received. In getting less media exposure, it goes without saying that the fighters in the WEC earned less for fights than fighters from other promotions. Though it was sad to see the fighters putting on excellent fights and earning meager paydays, those days are behind them, as are their days of fighting with little media attention.
With the merger of the WEC with the UFC, the UFC will add featherweight and bantamweight divisions as well as an influx of fighters to the merged lightweight (155 lb) division. While I had speculated the possibility of featherweight champion Jose Aldo bumping up a division to take on some of the more skilled lightweight fighters in the WEC or UFC, this becomes a distinct possibility. In addition to Top 10 pound-for-pound fighter Jose Aldo, the WEC brings champions Benson Henderson and Dominick Cruz to the UFC fold. While Aldo and Cruz will automatically become the UFC champion at their respective weights. Henderson will need to win his upcoming title defense (against Anthony Pettis) at the final WEC event in December, and then take on the UFC champion to unify the titles. The division that will garner the most attention is the unified lightweight division, which is already one of the top divisions in mixed martial arts, but only stands to improve with more talented fighters joining the mix.
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In addition to Ben Henderson, the WEC boasts a great deal of talent in the lightweight division. Donald Cerrone has the jiu-jitsu skills to match up with nearly anyone in the UFC, though he will need to win several fights to get himself into title contention. Shane Roller and Anthony Pettis will fight right in to the UFC’s wrestler-dominated hierarchy. Since the UFC is making every attempt to globalize their brand with UFC offices in Europe and Canada, but one WEC import in particular gives the UFC a chance to capture a large fanbase. Undefeated (17-0) lightweight Tiequan “The Mongolian Wolf” Zhang hails from China, and with some success, he could help to open the door for the UFC into the Far East. I am all but certain Dana White has looked into the possibility of utilizing Zhang in China much like he has used Michael Bisping, Dan Hardy, and others to lure in a substantial fan base in the United Kingdom. For how these fighters will fare in the ranks of the UFC, time will tell, but a number of the new UFC fighters have spent some time previously in the UFC before dropping in weight and into the WEC. The UFC-experienced fighters all fared fairly well, but the careers of fighters like Mike Brown, Leonard Garcia, George Roop and Manvel Gamburyan rose to new heights once they dropped in weight and joined the WEC.
As far as why Zuffa decided to merge the two brands, the reasoning is probably due to the desire to increase the marketability of the UFC. With 2 new weight classes, this gives that many more opportunities for championship fights to beef up the pay-per-view cards. With more fighters, the UFC can put on more shows and have a wider variety of fighters on the televised portions for the pay-per-view events. In addition to Spike TV, Zuffa has arranged for a deal with VS to continue to air events on both cable channels, giving added exposure to the up-and-coming sport of mixed martial arts. Another possible reason for the timing of the merger is the recent talks of having Bellator and Strikeforce fighters square off. Following (Bellator Lightweight Champion) Eddie Alvarez’s dismantling of Roger Huerta, much speculation was made about where Alvarez stood in the Lightweight rankings regardless of the promotion. There was some talk about the possibility of a match between Alvarez and Strikeforce Lightweight champion Gilbert Melendez, which opens up a new can of worms as far as cross-promotion fights. With the possibility of the #2 and #3 mixed martial arts promotions partnering up, the UFC was making the first (and most likely) move by striking first and expanding the brand with the acquisition and subsequent merger with the WEC to pit champion against champion. In the fullness of time, we will know more about this blockbuster announcement, but for the time being, we can only sit and wait for the exciting fights that will inevitably happen.
By Curt Heinrichs
ProFighting-fans.com Senior MMA Staff Writer