MMA JunkieUFC and WEC set to merge in 2011; events to air on Versus and Spike TV
The Ultimate Fighting Championship plans to merge with World Extreme Cagefighting in January 2011.
UFC president Dana White confirmed the news earlier today with MMAFighting.com, and a formal announcement is scheduled this afternoon.
The merger's primary intent is to fold the WEC's bantamweight, featherweight and lightweight divisions into the UFC.
"The timing was right," White said. "The reality is we purchased the WEC, (and) we started getting these lighter-weight guys exposure on television. ... Now, as the UFC continues to grow globally, and we're doing more and more fights, now we're bringing in those lighter weightclasses."
WEC 52 and WEC 53, scheduled for Nov. 11 and Dec. 16, respectively, will be the final events under the existing promotion. In January, the lighter-weighted promotion will cede its talent to the UFC.
White said the WEC's featherweight champion, Jose Aldo, will become the UFC featherweight champion when he first fights inside the octagon in January. Current WEC bantamweight champion Dominick Cruz defends his title against top contender Dominick Cruz at WEC 53.
The WEC's lightweight championship will also be on the line at WEC 53 as current champ Ben Henderson takes on Anthony Pettis. It's currently unclear what will become of the WEC's lightweight title, but UFC co-owner Lorenzo Fertitta hinted of a champion vs. champion superfight at the UFC Fan Expo London 2010.
"We'd love to see kind of a 'champion vs. champion' type bout with Ben and Frankie Edgar or something like that," Fertitta said. "Ben Henderson is a great fighter, and I think he could do really, really well against some of the top guys in the UFC at 155 (pounds)."
Zuffa, LLC, the UFC's parent company, purchased the WEC in 2006. The lighter-weighted promotion quickly found a new television partner, Versus channel, which aired all but a few of its events. WEC 48 also went to pay-per-view and was considered a rousing success.
According to White, four UFC events in 2011 will air on Versus, the current home of the WEC. Additionally, the UFC's longtime partnership with Spike TV will also remain in place.
Seriously, themz is some scrappy fighters.man FOTN bonuses will be owned by wec loljanurary will be sweet...jose aldo will impress a lot of ppl
i wonder what would happen if jose aldo move up while being champ and became LW champ at the same time
credit- yahoo sportsUFC president Dana White on Thursday made his “major announcement,” revealing that the promotion is not yet implementing a UFC Network but is folding the WEC into the UFC.
“There is no more WEC; those weight classes are rolling into the UFC,” White said. “Those fighters will remain in the UFC.”
That means all the fighters in the WEC and then some. White confirmed that he intends to fold the promotion’s entire roster into the UFC, and that there is enough worldwide demand to continue signing even more fighters than that.
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“It’s time; as we continue to grow globally, we’re doing enough fights to fold this thing into the UFC,” he said. “All of these weight classes should be in the UFC. Now, as we continue to grow and go into different markets, we can continue to add weight divisions.”
As for the WEC’s current champions, a road map for their move into the UFC is already laid out. Current featherweight champion Jose Aldo is now the UFC featherweight champion. Dominick Cruz puts his WEC bantamweight title on the line on Dec. 16 against Scott Jorgensen, and the winner of that fight will be the UFC bantamweight titleholder.
The only crossover division between the two promotions is the lightweight class, where Frankie Edgar holds the UFC title and Ben Henderson the WEC belt. Henderson will defend that belt against Anthony Pettis on Dec. 16 in Las Vegas. Edgar defends his strap against Gray Maynard. The winner of the Henderson-Pettis bout will then automatically get a shot at the winner of the Edgar-Maynard bout in a title unification fight.
The winner of Henderson vs. Pettis will be the WEC lightweight champion challenging the UFC champion.
“There is a still a lot of work to be done,” White said.
Especially on the television front, things get complicated. The UFC has been a mainstay on Spike TV for years – since the emergence of The Ultimate Fighter reality series – and WEC has had a home on Versus.
The UFC will be the promotion’s sole presence on Versus, although it won’t exactly be picking up the WEC’s presence on the sports network.
“We ended up getting a deal for the UFC on Versus. We’re allowed to do four fights on Versus – that’s what we can do now,” White said.
That deal is one that was struck while the WEC was still on Versus and the UFC on Spike, and that deal won’t change – at least not immediately.
The UFC plans on doing four events on Versus in 2011. As for the future of MMA and TV?
“I have no clue,” White said before adding: “We’re maxed out on pay-per-view.”
The additional UFC weight classes will allow the promotion to put on more title fights and give them more matchups for their pay-per-view events, but it won’t increase the number of pay-per-view events.
The merger of the UFC and the WEC has been bantered about for a long time, so why now? There’s no clear answer; they just felt it was time to make the move as the UFC’s global expansion continues, according to White.
“Now is the time,” he said. “It made sense.”