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Thread: UFC Merges WEC into UFC
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Oct-28-2010, 05:44 PM #1sjdrewk
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UFC Merges WEC into UFC
-this is good news for the UFC ppv's imo because it makes the cards better from top to bottom.... but it's bad news for me because it hurts the wec televised events as I can't watch them for free on Versus as I don't buy UFC ppv's.
What UFC-WEC merger means for fans
By Kevin Iole, Yahoo! Sports
2 hours, 9 minutes ago
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The best top-to-bottom cards in mixed martial arts on a consistent basis were, unquestionably, delivered by the World Extreme Cagefighting. Those fights will now take place on a significantly larger stage as Zuffa has folded the WEC into the Ultimate Fighting Championship, effective with UFC 125 on Jan. 1.
The UFC and the WEC each had its own lightweight divisions and their own champions, but those divisions will merge. WEC champion Benson Henderson will defend his title on Dec. 16 against Anthony Pettis. The winner will meet the winner of the UFC lightweight title fight at UFC 125 between Frankie Edgar and Gray Maynard later in 2011 for the undisputed belt.
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The UFC will simply fold the WEC’s bantamweight and featherweight divisions into its stable, giving it seven weight classes now, joining lightweight, welterweight (170 pounds), middleweight (185), light heavyweight (205) and heavyweight (265). WEC featherweight champion Jose Aldo will make his UFC debut at UFC 125 when he defends his title against an opponent to be named. The UFC will recognize the winner of the Dec. 16 fight between Dominick Cruz and Scott Jorgensen as its bantamweight champion.
UFC president Dana White sees only positives in the merger.
(Josh Hedges/Zuffa LLC via Getty Images)
The addition of the WEC fighters to the UFC roster should provide deeper pay-per-view cards and provide higher-quality fights.
The downside for fight fans, at least in the short term, will be a reduction of free fights on television. In 2010, the UFC had two fights on Versus, which will expand to four under a new deal announced Thursday by UFC president Dana White. But the WEC has already had five fights on Versus and still will air cards on the cable network on Nov. 11 from Las Vegas and Dec. 16 from Glendale, Ariz. As a result, that was nine shows, which will be cut to four under the new deal.
Unless the UFC adds an additional television deal, those five shows won’t be replaced on free television, though White did not seem to mind.
“I’m not looking at this thing as a negative like, ‘Oh, we lost a couple of fights on Versus,’ ” White said. “It’s a positive. We’ve got the UFC on Versus. The last one we did pulled killer numbers. Now that we’ve added these other two weight classes to the UFC, everything is positive. I’m not looking at it like, ‘Oh, we lost two fights. We have to pick them up somewhere else.’ ”
White said the merger became necessary because of the UFC’s expansion and the growth of the business in general. Adding high-quality fights from the WEC to UFC pay-per-view shows will clearly strengthen the UFC cards and should at least lessen common fan complaints about the lack of championship fights and diluted pay-per-view cards.
WEC stars Jose Aldo and Urijah Faber will compete on a bigger stage.
(Jon Kopaloff/Getty Images)
White has become irate when fans complained about shows such as UFC 119 in September, which didn’t have a title fight or many of the company’s star attractions on it. But with the WEC fighters coming aboard, guys like Aldo and bantamweight Urijah Faber should instantly become household names and the complaints should decrease.
http://sports.yahoo.com/mma/news;_yl...ecmerger102810
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Oct-28-2010, 05:48 PM
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Re: UFC Merges WEC into UFC
Yeah,this was a matter of time,IMO.
"From all of us sad,lonely,and bitter people,I encourage you to eat a big bowl of dick"
Oct-28-2010, 05:55 PM
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sjdrewk
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Re: UFC Merges WEC into UFC
-yeah, I agree with you but I still don't get the need for this big announcement bit other than Dana needs attention. WEC is already UFC, everyone knows this, just its lighter guys fight under the WEC banner.Originally Posted by Les
The UFC pushed its smaller guys to wec because they thought the fans preferred the bigger guys. sorta casted them off but now that we see that the match making isn't so great they need their smaller guys to make the cards better or more title fights under the UFC banner to make up for the bad match making.imo..
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