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WEC 4/24 Arco Arena in Sacramento (PPV)
By Zach Arnold | April 24, 2010
TV portion: Spike TV (preliminary fights from 9:00 PM to 10:00 PM EST)
PPV portion: 10 PM EST – 1 AM EST
Dark matches
- Featherweights: Brandon Visher vs. Tyler Toner
- Bantamweights: Takeya Mizugaki vs. Rani Yahya
- Featherweights: Chad Mendes vs. Anthony Morrison
- Bantamweights: Brad Pickett vs. Demetrious Johnson
- Lightweights: Alex Karalexis vs. Anthony Pettis
- Featherweights: Leonard Garcia vs. Chan Sung Jung
Main card
- Bantamweights: Antonio Banuelos vs. Scott Jorgensen
- Lightweights: Anthony Njokuani vs. Shane Roller
- Featherweights: Mike Brown vs. Manny Gamburyan
- WEC Lightweight title match: Ben Henderson vs. Donald Cerrone
- WEC Featherweight title match: Jose Aldo vs. Urijah Faber
Top stories heading into and out of the show
1. A WEC event produced by Zuffa without some WEC elements.
If you wanted any bigger indication of just how Zuffa-ized this upcoming PPV show is, look no further than to see who will be at the show and who won’t be at the show. In: Joe Rogan, Mike Goldberg, Bruce Buffer. Out: Reed Harris (WEC founder), Joe Martinez (ring announcer), Todd Harris & Frank Mir on commentary.
Don’t get me wrong — UFC is clearly taking this WEC PPV very seriously and by inserting “their guys” into the mix, it’s clear that they feel that they need to step it up a bit to have fans at home take everything more seriously. But in a way, that’s a WWE-type mentality by showing that they have no confidence in the guys who ran WEC under their banner to actually do a good job. I actually find myself feeling bad for Joe Martinez. He hasn’t done anything wrong since working WEC events and on the company’s first PPV, the indefatigable Bruce Buffer steps in for him.
2. The Comcast factor.
If there was ever a show this week that needed a full week of saturated advertising going into it in order to get some life into the PPV buy rate, this would be that show.
It’s been about a year since Comcast took over the Bay Area and Sacramento markets. Reno is a Suddenlink market, but anything Comcast-related can be seen there (along with the entire Northern California and Southern Oregon markets). Between Comcast Sports Net Bay Area & CSN California along with the on-demand features, there’s plenty of bandwidth for Comcast to do the hard sell for this WEC show. It needs the PR desperately.
We know Versus will air the standard UFC-style Countdown show for Faber vs. Aldo. I expect that hype show to be aired on both CSN BA & CSN California multiple times throughout the week. Spike TV will be airing the dark matches of the WEC event. Zuffa is doing as much as they possibly can, but this is one of those shows where Comcast advertising will either make it or break it. Since Sacramento is a Comcast market, I expect the cable giant will come through in a big way for Zuffa that CBS/Showtime simply cannot for Strikeforce.
3. Will WEC stay on PPV with a good buy rate or will the company merge into the UFC fold?
With UFC now having shows on Versus, it gives Zuffa some flexibility to be able to fold WEC should they want to do it. The big question has always been about when a merger would take place. If a merger does take place, does UFC keep the weight classes of WEC or largely ditch them altogether? With Strikeforce in such a weak position right now, I would think that fighters in the smaller weight classes should be very nervous if a merger takes place. Usually when mergers happen, you see a few guys make it and the rest are cut.
As far as a PPV buy rate is concerned, what would you deem to be successful for WEC? I’ve said that 20,000-25,000 would sound about right. However, with Comcast in their corner, Zuffa could and should do those numbers if not better.
4. What will Urijah Faber’s MMA future be after Saturday night?
We know that he signed a new deal with Zuffa to stay as the poster child of WEC. But what happens if he loses badly on Saturday or if the WEC PPV tanks business-wise?
Asking him to jump up to 155 pounds would be a daunting challenge. He simply wouldn’t be able to handle the bigger fighters in that weight class. It is more natural for him to go down — to 135 (Bantamweight) — than it would be for him to go up to 155 pounds. If Tyson Griffin managed to stifle Faber, then I could only imagine what guys like Frankie Edgar could do to neutralize him.
As for Saturday’s fight, if Faber wins he is a hero and everyone will applaud him. It’s very odd, however, that it seems the focus on his fight is more about the extenuating circumstances surrounding it out of the cage than what will actually take place inside the cage. It’s as is nobody is giving him a real shot of winning this fight. On the sportsbooks, he’s a smaller underdog against Aldo than Jake Shields was against Dan Henderson…
Topics: Media, MMA, WEC, Zach Arnold | 25 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |
i’m enjoying the new format for fights with the talking points
with the ufc spreading themselves thin sometimes, it seems that a wec merger would be best for the ufc. it would be good to see the wec fighters get more recognition and bigger paydays. one question would remain is that it would be how to divide events between versus and spike (are they related in any way?)
This should be one of the best cards of the year. Aldo is awesome.
Please for the love of God merge already! There’s no argument I could give in favor of a merger that hasn’t been given 1000 times already. The upside is just way more than the downside. Zuffa’s current deals with Versus and Spike are the main stumbling blocks, the details of which are not fully known.
As for cutting the lower weight classes, I think Zuffa would be absolutely insane to do that and it would defeat the whole purpose of a merger. I really do not think this is remotely likely. Furthermore StrikeForce has found a bit of success in utilizing women’s fights, in part because they had access to any female fighter they wanted. What if they suddenly were able to make a kick-ass Featherweight division, and in fact claim they had the best Featherweights in the world? They’d suddenly have a whole bunch of exciting match-ups and a highly credible division, and only a handful of FWs currently command more than $12k + $12k a fight. There is no way Zuffa is going to let this happen.
That’s a really good card. It will be an interesting experiment to see if the theory that if people are trained to get something for free they won’t pay for it holds up. But if WEC can get 10% of their Versus audience to buy the show it will break even at least.
1) I think it’s a slap in the face to WEC that they’re saying “You’re not good enough for the big stage.” Is a freakin’ ring announcer that big of a deal? Is one single person going to order this show and be disappointed Bruce Buffer isn’t there?
2) Comcast having a stake in this is a huge advantage. This will be an interesting test to see if Comcast muscle is any better than Spike promotion.
3) They won’t merge. I think brand fatigue is something the UFC realizes is possible and realize their brand is out there more than enough. WEC is a different product that caters to a smaller audience. The UFC on Versus show was a bit lower rated than expected so I’m sure they’d rather have a disappointment attached that that name than the UFC. Plus having Jose Aldo and Mike Brown on a UFC card is going to only excite the hardcores who are buying it already. And with Strikeforce in trouble if they lose CBS, they could have an influx of talent coming in soon to reinvigorate the divisions anyway.
4) Faber win or lose will stay where he is. He’d get destroyed by even moderate stars at 155, much less the big dogs like Penn, Sherk, Sanchez, Guida, Florian, ect. Of course we’d all like to see him matched up with a lot of those guys, but he’s smart enough not to destroy his career for 3 pay days before getting cut.
The show will do between 80,000 and 100,000 PPV Buys.
Overall the card looks very solid. Lots of good fights on paper.
I just don’t like Zuffa putting on a $45 card every 2 weeks. There is no reason to be doing so. Fill up the cards with better fights each and do fewer but better cards….
Amen. I hate the blind fanatical argument, “If you don’t want to pay for it, don’t pay for it!” (because I won’t, which can’t be good for business as I’m sure I’m not the only one)
Well actually friends, I don’t really want to pay for almost any of them because the high number of ppvs waters down the quality of ALL of them. Yes there is a big fight/fighter I want to see – but I don’t care to see Bonnar vs. K-Sos or two other generic TUF grads, when you could have had one card to consolidate two and put the rest on a free tv card. On the other hand, I’m glad that there’s more cards that leads to more fights for guys to make some money – but the dilution is killing my desire to watch all/most of them like I used to.
Right now I would like to see 1 PPV per month maximum. And then 1 to 2 free cards per month. Split them between SpikeTV and Versus. And that’s WITH Feather and Bantam in the UFC….
Right now, Zuffa has planned 2 PPV’s for April, May, and rumored for August. In the long term they are going to kill their casual fanbase and it would take years to recover.
What they are doing is actually forcing their devoted fanbase to steal or skip to see their product.
45, not sure I follow this logic. UFC had 11 PPV’s last year and are on pace for maybe 14 this year. That’s pretty close to your 1PPV/mo. Plus they’ve put on a few free cards too.
I don’t care how devoted their fanbase is, that fanbase will continue to “steal” their product. All the mma-core, mmalinker and the like sites plus the next-day availability of the entire cards via torrent will continue to proliferate. The key for the UFC is that there is a huge contingent that wants to see the show live and will therefore pay the $45/55.
I would like to see more stacked cards also but UFC is a business plain and simple. They are in it to provide the least possible product for the highest payback. If they put only 2 good fights on each PPV and 8 TUF/grade B fights and people continue to buy, they will not change their strategy. It’s simple economics, the hard core’s can say I want fewer PPV’s and more high quality fights per but that’s just plain silly. Why would Dana and Co. do that? It’s all about the money.
Me, I’m happy to pay for the odd card and watch the rest via pirating methods. That’s the nature of today’s internet, get used to it.
Oh, and of course they should fricken merge. The one and only reason they haven’t done so previously is because WEC held Versus away from any other potential MMA promotion. With the new “UFC on Versus” approach there is zero reason to keep the 2 promotions and they will merge. The 35’s and 45’s are exciting and will help fill up cards and even allow UFC to sell an extra PPV or 2 per year.
Last point, Faber will get his ass kicked in round 1.
Assuming they have another month after August that they do 2 PPV’s during… Which is likely…. They will have done 16 PPV’s for the year. That is just too darn many. Some could say it is ONLY 4 more… But those 4 more build in a lot of fatigue. And they are unnecessary as they could easily use those 4 extra PPV’s to fill in the rest of the PPV’s and make them better cards.
That’s quite a prediction that even the biggest Zuffa optimists like Meltzer and Iole (or even Dana) aren’t making. Most believe 50,000 will be a blockbuster and between 30,000-40,000 is most likely. Remember even with Direct TV back they can’t get 500,000 viewers for free and this is a full-price PPV with some of those same fighters who aren’t drawing anymore on Versus.
I just think there is a biggest potential fanbase for this PPV then they think. I could be wrong, but I think this does around Affliction PPV levels…. Some people will buy any MMA PPV…. And it is certainly higher then 30,000 these days.
You have to take in the burn out factor that wasn’t there in 2008 for Affliction, though. The Sylvia-Fedor show was a year before MMA peaked in popularity in July ’09. And back then WEC shows would come close to doing what UFC Fight Nights do. Plus we’ve had what, 3 or 4 MMA shows already in April? I think 50K and that’s still very good for how cheap overhead is. Zuffa will be popping champagne for that…..lower end champagne, but champagne nonetheless.
The profits depend on how Urijah Faber’s contract is structured.
While I’m predicting a higher number, I do hope this PPV bombs. It would increase the probability of the WEC merging with the UFC AND fewer PPV’s per year. Both sound good to me.
We shall see on the buyrate. The only thing that would shock me is if it does huge numbers. Like over 100,000. If it tanked, I wouldn’t be shocked at all….
Another MMA event? It was troublesome enough to get myself to try and care about Strikeforce. No thanks.
80,000 buys sounds very optimistic to me, but more power to Zuffa if they can get that many suckers to buy this card. It’s not worth more than $10.
I think that the cost isn’t that big of a deal because there is always a bar around showing the fights for little or no cover.
Don’t they only buy shows with a big demand, though? I was under the impression they stick to only WWE, UFC and major boxing cards. Did they do Affliction’s two shows?
Depends on the Bar man.
Champs near where I live does every UFC card, and the bigger boxing cards. I’ve seen poster for it there so they are definately having the WEC ppv.They also have every free card.
“If Tyson Griffin managed to stifle Faber, then I could only imagine what guys like Frankie Edgar could do to neutralize him.”
C’mon Zack, you knoe MMAmath doesn’t work. Urijah has got great speed and that could help him against some of the slower guys in the UFC.
That said he would never be a title challenger.
This event is coming out on DVD & Blu-ray on July 20th. Which I believe would make it the first Zuffa run WEC event to make itself onto DVD.
The description of the disc on Amazon says: “UFC presents WEC”
But based on the coverart… http://www.amazon.com/Ufc-Presents-Wec-Faber-Blu-ray/dp/B003HTPHWW/ref=sr_1_10?ie=UTF8&s=dvd&qid=1271728190&sr=1-10
They make no mention of the WEC on the cover at all. It says “UFC Presents” and makes no mention of the WEC at all.
Zuffa fixes decisions. There is absolutely no question in my mind.
Garcia/Jung makes it official.
Bisping beating Hamill, Shogun getting absolutely screwed against Machida, and then Couture getting a baffling decision over Vera. It’s getting more frequent, that’s for sure.
Not to take away from the fighters, who were both phenomenal, but the decision put a big damper on their performances. But this was absolute garbage from Zuffa, which is becoming their standard.
Brother, I wish you replied to your e-mails as often as you comment on this site. 🙂
Zuffa is fixing decisions now? The Zuffa hate has no limits….
Why in the world would the UFC fix a decision for Leonard fucking Garcia? What possible motivation is there for them to do that? I could understand saying the might fix a decision for a big cash cow like Lesnar or GSP, but Leonard Garcia?
C’mon son. Use you head.
It was a shitty decision decision rendered by incompetent judges. It wasn’t some Machiavellian plot to get Leonard Garcia a win or to screw the Korean Zombie.
There’s no way in hell that Zuffa would risk everything to make sure Leonard Garcia won…he’s basically a really exciting gatekeeper to the elite level of his division. So not really a “gatekeeper” in the sense that most people use the word, but basically the test for fighters to get to the MTBs/Fabers/Aldos of the world.
If they were truly ever going to “fix” fights it would be for someone they were banking on as a draw or champion…this is way to tinfoil hat levels.
The judges are NOT Zuffa employees. While I’m sure just as in boxing the state sanctioned judges are not completely beyond reproach or not susceptible to influence, I really don’t think they’re going to be stretching their necks out to protect LG. These are basically just incompetent idiots – Doug Crosby being exhibit A and Cecil Peoples being exhibit 1A.
If anything, I think you just see judges having an (unconscious) bias to the better known fighter or bigger fan favourite.
Let’s leave the conspiracy theories to Jesse the Body.
Melzer is reporting between 150K to 200K buys according to his preliminary tracking estimates.
LOL at all the nattering nabobs of negativity who were saying 25K-50K.