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Tough questions asked about WEC’s future after Urijah Faber loses
By Zach Arnold | November 6, 2008
MSNBC: How UFC crushed the competition
”They offer the highest level of product in the marketplace,” said Shawn McBride, vice president of Ketchum Sports Network. “UFC is laser-focused on mixed martial arts. It’s a great case study.”
South Florida Sun-Sentinel: WEC draws 5,600 paid for Mike Brown’s big upset of Urijah Faber
In another stunning turn of events, middleweight defending champion Paulo Filho, scheduled to defend his title against Chael Sonnen, failed to make weight. The Brazilian came in a shocking 7 pounds overweight, forcing WEC officials to make it a non-title bout. Filho had to forfeit 25 percent of his prize purse to Sonnen.
“It’s not acceptable not to make weight because of a lack of discipline,” Sonnen said. “My heart is broken. I came here to win the world championship.
“I promised my father on his death bed I would win the world title, and it’s not going to happen.”
Luke Thomas: Is the WEC ready for PPV?
The problems that were true yesterday are eve more so true today: Miguel Torres, Jamie Varner and Carlos Condit are worthy champions, but not the sort of talent or name to corral PPV buys. In short, the organization – in a down economy and with far too few stars – is not ready to convince MMA fans to pay for PPV. While the diehards would likely plop down whatever money was being asked, it is hard to conceive of a scenario where they’d meet or exceed 100,000 buys.
Total MMA: WEC 36 – not exactly as planned
For Faber, its a monsterous step back in his career. The veil of invincibility and the dream matchups with names like Kid Yamamoto seem a million years ago already. He must now deal with Mike Brown if he ever wants to return to the mountain top. For Brown, the narrative is very different. Brown’s current win streak began before his single fight with Bodog, but it was his surprising lightweight division win over the once top contender Yves Edwards in that show’s second series that began his resurgence from fringe contender to potentially being the #1 featherweight MMA fighter on the planet. One has to wonder if the WEC might be interested in contracting the top Japanese featherweights; Imanari and Mishma clearly leading that class, both having fought outside Japan on several occasions. However, the risk of losing the belt to a non-english speaker instead of an immediate rematch will probably not be considered acceptable for Zuffa’s secondary promotion.
Topics: Media, MMA, UFC, WEC, Zach Arnold | 13 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |
I know I’ve gone off on this before, but I’ve never seen the logic in trying to build the WEC into it’s own PPV level entity. It’s just not going to work. Not in legit sports.
Dana & the boys may envision a RAW/SMACKDOWN situation somewhere down the line, but it’s just not going to happen.
They should just have the UFC envelope the WEC into itself & find a way in which to showcase & keep all their fighters busy enough. Ala a regular weekly fight card.
Or, use the WEC as a developmental league with it’s titles either used as a springboard into the UFC or perhaps as Zuffa’s own version of an Intercontinental title.
“Or, use the WEC as a developmental league with it’s titles either used as a springboard into the UFC or perhaps as Zuffa’s own version of an Intercontinental title.”
Good in theory, but do you think Versus wants to pay for Spike’s minor league?
I still don’t see why the WEC doesn’t release DVDs. I think it would help their case if they wanted to get have PPVs.
[…] Tough questions asked about WEC’s future after Urijah Faber loses […]
I wrote an editorial about last night’s show (and the placement of main card and prelim fights) called “Zuffa’s Cannibalization of the WEC,” and it’s up at this URL: http://www.ivansblog.com/2008/11/mixed-martial-arts-zuffas.html
One of the biggest problems with the WEC has been the lack of exposure of title challengers.
All I read about today is how Mike Brown beating Urijah Faber was a “major upset”. That just isn’t true. Mike Brown was a top 5 Featherweight and this was easily a 60/40 fight at the very worst.
The reason for this perception is that Jeff Curran vs. Mike Thomas was never broadcasted on the undercard of Faber/Pulver. That event got solid ratings, but nobody was able to see the #1 Contender fight. Instead, we got the very inexperienced Light Heavyweight, Mark Munoz.
That naive approach to fight promoting bit them in the butt to twice last night.
1. The WEC now has a Featherweight Champion (Their Glamour Division), that nobody knows. This was the first time most fans got a chance to see him. Instead of seeing him beat up Curran and then Faber, which would have given a lot more credibility to the win.
2. Jamie Varner vs. Donald Cerrone. Welcome to another title fight that nobody knows about. Cerrone is very talented, but he had no business being on the undercard. Especially when an inexperienced Middleweight got the shot instead.
First, the WEC has no business on PPV. Secondly, they need to start using their TV slots better to build up talent. Hopefully the reduction of weight classes will make that more helpful, but they still need a change in the way they do business to really have the WEC thrive.
Looks like Ivan & myself basicly share the same core views.
What is worse is that Cerrone/McCullough is being touted as fight of the year worthy.
The Mike brown vs Jeff Curran fight was boring personified. I saw Curran after the fight and he looked like he’d been in a domestic dispute. A couple bruises but no damage had been done. The fight itself consisted of about 2 and 1/2 rounds of solid lay’n’pray. The WEC expected this to happen and thats why it went on the undercard. Had the fight been more exciting it would have made the main card.
Intelligent comments by Ivan. My only quibble is the blog isn’t very friendly on the eyes…
skwirll— That might make sense if not for the Faber-Brown circumstance (and others like it) being cited by both UFC management and WEC management as a primary reason for cutting the WEC light heavyweight and middleweight divisions. They have said that they wanted to be able to showcase their top contenders more in the four remaining weight classes, and to avoid anymore Faber-Brown situations where fans didn’t even see the title challenger win the fight that earned him the title shot.
And so what happens on the very next show? The #1 contender’s fight for the lightweight title is a prelim fight, and so is a fight between two top-level bantamweights, in favor of a little bit of exposure for a fighter (Jake Rosholt) who is going to be in the UFC soon. As I said, it’s theoretically good for the UFC, and absolutely bad for the WEC product.
I think the WEC should just go in the direction of a “farm league” for the UFC. Don’t axe Light Heavyweight and Middleweight. Keep them to build up talent for the UFC.
The WEC should continue to be the major American league for featherweight and bantamweight though since the UFC doesn’t have them. Ideally, I’d also like to see them try to put in a 125 division but it’s probably rare as hell to find fighters that small in America. So as long as Heavyweight is shallow in the UFC, there’s no need for it in the WEC. And Superheavyweight of course is useless. Mark Hunt and whoever else matters at that weight can fight at 265.
Why not think outside the box and, add some weight classes that the UFC doesn’t have? How about a 165 lb. class? Since the Middle and, light heavyweights are leaving, how about a 190lb class and, a 220lb class?
Also, why are fighters allowed to weigh much more than their weight limit on fight day? If it’s a 145lb class, then both fighters should weigh 145 on fight day. If that’s too hard to do, then some fighters don’t belong in a lower class.
Imanari dropped to 135 lbs now.
Mishima fought under ZUFFA at 155 lbs. I wonder IF DEEP will let one of their champs fight in WEC & vice-versa. I don’t think so