WEC Dropping Middleweight and Light Heavyweight Divisions After December 3rd Event
World Extreme Cagefighting today announced that it will no longer promote middleweight (185 pounds) and light heavyweight (205 pounds) fights after the promotion’s December 3rd event, WEC 37, at the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas.
The WEC, a sister promotion to the UFC owned by Zuffa, LLC, will now focus on just four weight classes: welterweight (170 pounds), lightweight (155 pounds), featherweight (145 pounds), and bantamweight (135 pounds).
“With every fight, the WEC has proven itself to be a powerful and growing presence in sports, both with our live events and our programming on VERSUS,†said Peter Dropick, WEC Vice President, Operations and Production. “Exciting matchups like Torres vs. Tapia on Dec. 3 and the incredible fights we have planned for 2009 under this new structure will no doubt establish WEC as the home of the best lighter weight fighters in the world.â€
Among the notable fighters who will now make the jump to the UFC are middleweight champion Paulo Filho, middleweight challenger Chael Sonnen, light heavyweight champion Steve Cantwell, and former light heavyweight champion Brian Stann.
The WEC on Friday also officially announced that bantamweight champion Miguel Torres will put his title on the line against Manny Tapia in the main event of the WEC 37, which will air live on Versus.
Loading ...
it finally is “official” righton Sonnen will get destroyed by the MW’s in the UFC… Filho well that is quite an addition (the consensus #2 in the world it seems), will he fight his friend Anderson Silva im not sure but we can only wish
Stann welcome to the big leauges kid best of luck
Cantwell i dont see u being a champion in the UFC see in EliteXC
i wonder if they are going to bring over Doug Marshall if so i would like to see him attempt to cut to 185, he cant be in there against the LHW’s in the UFC imo
Torres v Tapia is a hell of a fight I hope and think Torres will win
I think Filho will get beat up pretty bad in the UFC. I have no clue how he is ranked 3 or 4 in the MW world rankings. He looks like a good BJJ guy, with decent to average standup. Sorry, but 2 fights in the UFC and he might be fighting Lindland in EliteXC/Afflition/Adrenaline/etc. Plus, he’s ugly.
@ Rutdog, he is 16-0 but I too have my problems with his standup as well as his lack of conditioning (first Sonnen fight)… Unfortunately he is having his “bouts” with depression and meds which sucks but the guy is really good and in PRIDE he was nutz(hmmm?)
Filho is a beast when he is in shape , and he will be sure to get ready for his UFC debut . I have no doubts that he is next in line for anderson friend or not .thats probably why he has thought about moving up to ltheavy , filho is for real . you cant argue with 16-0 ,paulo has not been beaten yet and silva has 4 times .
I think that the top middleweight guys from the WEC will be able to find a place in the UFC. It will be interesting to see if there are unification fights forthcoming so that there are not two “champions” or if they will simply strip the belts from the WEC fighters. I can see Filho being able to at least challenge for the UFC belt, if he and Silva are willing to fight one another, however Cantwell I would very much doubt as a contender in the UFC, the same with Stann (granted Stann is no longer the belt holder for WEC).
Also, if they are wanting to unify the titles rather than just strip them, it would have to be the next fight for those fighters. It would not make sense to have either of them fight a non title holder in the UFC, and then lose their belt.
@Doom, are u insinuating that Silva is afraid or ducking Filho…..? Yes Silva has 4 losses and I believe that he has worked on those very specific holes in his game, mind you it seems everyone loses give it time and Filho will lose too perhaps to The Spider
Stann-Cantwell 3 on 12/10
Saw that as well (BE) sooo I guess its win the fight move up the ranks of the UFC interesting move nonetheless
I guess its for the best I can’t get in there because I would have to be carried out. I would be one of three pulling for Cantwell. I can’t believe Stann is switching camps again.(TQFC-Jackson this time).
i dont think silva is afrid of filho ,FR702, they have obviously sparred before and I think they know what would happen if they met . Its just kinda funny silva started to climb in weight . Probably was the first to know about the merge and was getting a head start .
@Doom, I think Silva fought Irvin @ 205lbs because, Dana White wanted to compete with the innagural Affliction card, soo he got his undefeated (in the UFC) champion to move up and take on a 205er Anderson did his part by destroying Irvin I also think that Silva would fight at either 205 or 185 simply because he can make either weight… He is the man @ 185 not even Filho would argue that just because (in the UFC) he has moved up weight ONCE just because his boss asked him to doesn’t mean he is “ahead of the curve” if u will, cheers
so what you’re saying DrDoom is that you think Silva wants to duck Filho.
Best thing for Filho is to break Chael’s arm off(He’s got it coming to him) and then drop down to 170. He can do it…It will just take tim to find his game again and diet.
I hope the Rhino shows up at 185. He would be so much better off. Gandulla was jacked up when they fought and I will go to my grave believing that Stann was jacked up when he beat him for the title.
i am so happy they are scrapping those divisions. it was painful to watch those guys fight, because they knew they were fighting bottom-o-the-barrel fighters, and that the title wasnt worth the walk into the ring. does anybody else see that uriah faber is resting on his laurels? why doesnt he move up in weight? he is simply matt hughes … a talenlless schmuk who believes what people say about him. thank god for condit and torres, faber would get choked in second round by either …
Most of the fighters are nothing more than Fight night material. Doug Marshall will get destroyed in either weight class imo. He really is not that good, too wild with his punches.
“Rhino” needs to structure of UFN to develop as a fighter. He had the pressure on him when he got the belt. It was almost a right place wrong time thing for him…
I just wanna see who they stick in with Filho . And will he enter the ring wearing the WEC belt until a unification match is done .They HAVE to let Silva fight Paulo , friends or not . As long as it goes to the mat , Filho will take it . if its more standup action its silva’s fight to win .
And Cantwell vs Griffin might be a better fight than we think . Steve has a style that would match up quite well . Both like the stnd up show ……….and it would be a highlight ending .
DrDoom,
I agree that it would be fun to watch Cantwell or Stann face Griffin, but Griffin has to get past Evans before we have a unification fight between Either of the WEC guys and Forrest.
FeloniusMonk,
I don’t think Faber is resting on his laurels, he has a title defense coming up, and he has already mentioned that he would be willing to face Torres or Condit.
Faber v Torres…fabers too strong and would pound out Torres.
Faber v Condit…no idea, probably the same result
I like them all. I’d be okay if the stayed in their own class
I agree with Doom and Justin…Forrest vs Cantwell would be fun…
Its a top rated fight in my books …… also picture Sonnen taking on A slimmed down bonner . That is another gem …. and for paulo’s first fight he should take on Bisping , then try taking on silva for the unified belt
I don’t see how its fair or good business sense to make guys fight a non champ before they do a unification fight. The only way that makes sense is if they are going to skip unification and just strip the belts.
The UFC might not reconize the championships from the WEC, a lot like the UFC didn’t reconize that Anderson was the Cage Rage champ, I see this going down simular to Jake Sheilds v Paul Daley next weekend where only Sheilds EliteXC belt is on the line not Daley’s Cage Rage belt
That could be true FR, the only thing that makes me think it could go otherwise is that Zuffa owns WEC, as they did Pride when they did the unification fights with Hendo (granted, it was Hendo).
And PRIDE was bigger and “more established” than the WEC yet I do see your point but as u said it was Hendo…. I don’t see Cantwell beating any top LHW in the UFC
Yeah, at this point only Dana and few others know how they’ll play it, we’ll see when the time comes.
Awww the wait and see game, I know that one well
Cantwell would be a fairly easy defense for Forrest.
Then whoopy he now has the WEC LHW belt, um I think having the PRIDE MW (when Hendo defended it) was a bigger deal then WEC v UFC champion would be
This doesn’t help the UFC’s Heavyweight situation. I would however love to see live mma on tv every freakin week. I think they’re a short hair away.
It would solve alot of the problems some members of this board posted about Forrest having limited ability to maintain the belt. So a match with Evans-Machida-and Cantwell/Stann would be a 12-18month window of stability and all the blasters would thin their own numbers…