WEC, UFC to Merge in 2011; More UFC Events to Air on Versus
World Extreme Cagefighting will merge with its sister promotion the Ultimate Fighting Championship in January, UFC President Dana White announced on Thursday.
Following WEC 52 on Nov. 11 and WEC 53 on Dec. 16, the WEC’s featherweight (145-pound) and bantamweight (135-pound) divisions will be added to the UFC, while its 155-pound roster will join the UFC’s established lightweight division.
As part of the move, four UFC events in 2011 will air on Versus, the former home of the WEC which aired two UFC events earlier this year.
Jose Aldo is now the UFC featherweight champion and will defend the title for the first time at January’s UFC 125, Dominick Cruz becomes the UFC bantamweight champion but will still face Scott Jorgensen at WEC 53, and the winner of WEC 53′s main event between lightweight champion Ben Henderson and Anthony Pettis will earn a shot at the winner of UFC 125′s Frankie Edgar vs. Gray Maynard to unify the titles.
White discusses the merger in an interview with MMA Fighting below:
For the latest UFC news and UFC rumors stay tuned to MMAFrenzy.com.
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About time!
holy sweet baby jeebus its about time… so im guessing there will be alot more PPVs now? or maybe just longer PPVs
so what happens with Reed Harris… does he still have a job or does Dana take the reigns..
Did you not watch the video?
HAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!! Why waste your time when you can ask and someone will answer?
no i did not watch the video yet.. my internet wont load any videos so im gonna have to wait… but im guessing there will be some sort of job for him
@russoc13 – Basically Dana White is saying that the management staff-type guys like Reed Harris are good, because the UFC’s expansion will need more hands on deck…
thanks Jcohl… and sorry but im gonna have to ask one more question… did he clear up what will happen with Benson Henderson and his now obsolete title.. im guessing interim title until after Edgar vs Maynard
never mind the main page answered my question ;)
sick i wonder wat jan card aldo will b on. aldo vs whoever as comain event and edgar vs maynard 2 as the main event would b sick!
i figure Aldo will be Co-headlining on superbowl weekend
I think Aldo will be on Fight for the Troops 2.
I bet we’ll see some of the UFC Light Weight guys dropping to 145. Hopefully one of the bigger names will drop down and challenge Jose Aldo for his welcoming.
We could also see more fighters joining the Penn-Hendo-Couture club of goldholding in multiple weightclasses.
Just imagine Jose Aldo challenging the Edgar-Maynard winner at 155, or Edgar, assuming he beats Maynard, dropping down to 145 to challenge Aldo.
Both Aldo and Edgar can easily make each other’s weightclass, and both guys have exhibited some impressive in-cage mojo.
Aldo-Edgar for either the UFC 145 or 155 title could be money, especially if they use a future TUF as the primary promoting platform…
It’s a good thing it’s lunch time here on the East Coast, because I’m about to consume my helping of crow for dumping on the “major” tag that was given to today’s announcement.
@justin –
You can pass some of that crow here dude, as I was also waving this off yesterday and all I had for breakfast was a cafe con leches. ;-)
Seriously though, who could blame us for doubting whether or not this announcement would have weight?
How many of these have we sat thru and left underwhelmed?
@Justin to be honest I think Dana has realized he was starting to be the “boy who cried wolf” with his announcements. I think he’s had some serious things lined up that fell through. Like a few years ago when he promised a major announcement, the Vblog showed him promising that as he arrived at a hotel in LA, Fedor was in LA then, and obviously it fell through. So of course Dana jumped the gun there. He’s done that a few times with various things(expecting NY legislation to pass) and then finally this comes up. The wolf finally showed up for real this time.
I think that’s a pretty good assessment. I think that’s why he’s been more coy lately about the “big things” he’s working on.
Translation: Aldo and Faber can’t carry an entire organization so we’re folding them in and really thickening the bottom end of our 155 talent pool. Expect cuts to follow.
Additional translation:
Tito Ortiz has fought his last UFC fight…
;-)
We can always hope!
Awesome news. Hopefully this means both more and longer PPV’s. I dont know about you gentlemen, but I was paying 44.99 per show and the past 3-4 ppv’s have been 54.99. I know that’s a cable company decision but if I’m going to shell out that kind of cheddar I would love 4 hr ppv’s!
Do you know why you don’t get “4 hour PPVS”? I’ll give you a hint, they are blocked out for 4 hours…
BUT FIGHTS DON’T ALWAYS GO THE DISTANCE.
I can’t remember which it was, I’m sure bsbiz may, but we saw EVERY fight on the card…and were done by 12. All first round finishes. It was a 2 hour PPV. And we saw 11 fights. You CAN’T guarantee longer PPVs.
Has any sports PPV ever been 4 hours?
The only PPV offering I’ve ever heard of is pro wrestling, which is of course scripted to go that long, like a regular TV show.
Plus, a 4 hour MMA event means I’ve got to feed people twice, and as it is I’m up to my eyes in mealplanning for MMA get-togethers…
;-)
I don’t remember what I had for lunch, let alone which PPV that was. But if I had to guess (or had time to look it up), I would guess that it was between 100 and 110.
UFC 91?
dbiz,
you’re right, I remember that ppv as well. It was awesome!! You have to admit though that that is very rare and I guess I am hoping that the cards will jump to 13-14 fights per card instead of the usual 11-ish.
Considering they already end at 1am or so on the East coast (the only coast that matters), I highly doubt any more televised fights will occur.
i definatly dont want more PPVs.. i can barely afford the ones they have now… but i would like at least 1 more fight on the main card..
Maybe the next season of The Ultimate Fighter will feature one of the new weight classes.
Its been discussed a lot over at the forums a TUF with Urijah Faber and Miguel Torres as coaches, and now throw Jose Aldo into that mix as well…
Lighter weight TUFs are a possibility, but not yet planned. They already had tryouts for the next TUF, for welterweights and middleweights.
Sorry, they already announced the tryouts, they haven’t happened yet, they are on November 4.
If they’re already planning that, I doubt they’ll be doing a WEC weight for the next season. Season after? Much more likely.
Poor Henderson/Cerroni/Varner. Their love triangle is now broken up and they will sink in the Shark tank that is the UFC 155lbs division. Welcome to the Big Leauge Boys
As dbiz posts, there are going to be WEC 155 cuts, which benefits both Strikeforce and Bellator…
There will also likely be some culling of the ranks in the 170, 185, and 205 divisions.
^^^True, and again maybe Strikeforce and definitely Bellator, and even smaller orgs like SharkFights will benefit from more available “free agent” talent being out there…
Cerroni and Henderson will be fine. It’s Varner that will have to step his game up in order to stay in. Cerrone just needs to stay on his greg jackson regiment right now.
As far as the PPV price I wouldn’t be surprised to see them go up in price if they add to the amount fights per PPV…..Atleast we get new fighters in the next UFC Undisputed! Lol
more than ever, a tv deal makes a lot of sense
whats this i hear about the undertaker?
Its nothing of consequence, unless you’re one of those fringe online conspiracy theorists that think the UFC is as dodgey and scripted as pro wrestling is…
i’m not, but i know someone who is, he watched the last bill with us and let me tell you mike goldberg talking about integrity in and out of the ring aswell as “Nightmare” saying his mental energy is his most important tool didn’t help, hahaha
but what did happen?
this is all
wow, thats interesting. Do you know what lesnar said to him chrisl?
Nothing was said on Helwani’s twitter or write-up. Rumors are that WWE has approached Brock much like they did Dwayne Johnson awhile ago. WWE’s PPV numbers are lagging over the past year and inking a marqee match-up for one of their big events would surely help them. That said, it won’t happen. UFC has an exclusive deal and ask Couture about trying to buck that trend.
yes but i thought the “undertaker” was reffering to an mma match?
@petterson it’s mostly speculation about what was said in private but as “the Undertaker” most likely is under an exclusive deal as well it’d be rather impossible for any fight to happen under the UFC banner and WWE would want a cut of anything that happened outside their banner. We know how the UFC feels about co-promoting.
true…
I had a feeling that this is what it’s all about. Great news to hear. I can’t wait to see UFC gold around the waist of a bantamweight and a featherweight. The winner of Henderson vs. Pettis gets a title shot at the UFC belt is great to hear as well. Finally, now it’s all about the best in all weight classes go to the UFC. Just need to grab that Alvarez guy and toss him in the octagon with the UFC lightweights and see how he does. Same with Melendedez. ;)
And of course, then there is the most important acquisition in the whole deal: Brittney Palmer.
oh yes.. she is by far the bestest ring girl around.. hopefully the UFC will put her to good use ;)
@chrisl –
The Natural can hang with almost anyone wearing gloves and fight shorts.
But against some sh!tstain rocking a suit and tie?
Carrying a briefcase?
Repping either Zuffa or some cast-off female?
Couture’s got no chance…
few people could beat that legal team that Zuffa can put together.
@chrisl – and doesn’t Ken Shamrock know thats the hard truth…
;-)
great stuff. been lookin forward to this for a long time. i actually thought it was gonna happen sooner
Jose Aldo on UFC PPV! Going to be awesome. Should make the UFC PPV’s even more watchable, WEC fights rarely disappoint, and the winner of Henderson and Pettis are getting a UFC title shot? LUCKYYYYY.
Bottom Line:
This is good news for the UFC, MMA & the fans
this is mad exciting forreal………………………cerrone vs florian……benson vs edgar………….adlo the UFC FEATHER weight champ.mad sick………….this is a great move
Totally called this a couple of days ago!!! But actually didn’t think it was actually going to happen haha
This will really shake things up in every weight division and we will see who really wants to stay in the UFC. So I’m hoping we see a lot of exciting loser leaves town type fights. I wonder if all the WEC guys that are coming will get higher paying UFC contracts?
Whats going to happen to the WEC play-by-play commentator? He is way better than Mike Goldberg and doesn’t have as many cheesy phrases.
No word yet but I hope they may still use him on the Versus broadcasts
Maybe him or Bonnar can become the third man in the UFC commentating crew, I think it would help them.
I know Todd Harris does other work in the sports announcing business. I believe he does other stuff for Versus and maybe ABC. I’ve heard him before and thought, “That’s the WEC guy.” I’m not sure they’ll add anyone to the booth with Rogan and Goldberg because they may not want to mess up the chemistry those guys have. I could be wrong, but I doubt it. If they do add someone, it would be a(n) (ex-)fighter to provide more color analysis. Harris is a play-by-play guy and would only get in Goldberg’s way.
I know there’s been some rumbling about adding a former fighter(most recently Matt Hughes) to the panel but they wouldn’t add a second play-by-play guy. Personally, it wouldn’t surprise me if Randy were approached again to resume his old 3rd spot.
Frank Mir was still one of the best for seeing what is going on and what might happen. Bonnar isn’t bad, but he’s not as good. Of course they’re still active, so they’re out.
Maybe Zuffa will try a few different guys in the 3 spot and see who catches on with a presumably expanded [network] audience?