MMA INSIDER
DANN STUPP
The world’s biggest mixed martial arts promotion has gotten bigger.
This past week, officials from the Ultimate Fighting Championship announced they’ve scheduled a January merger with World Extreme Cagefighting, a sister promotion that focuses on the sport’s lighter weight classes.
While the WEC is one of the world’s most successful promotions, it’s operated largely independently of the UFC with a smaller TV deal (Versus instead of Spike TV), fewer annual shows, smaller audiences and less fighter pay.
However, after the UFC purchased it in 2007, the WEC eliminated and merged its heavier weight classes. The WEC soon became the home to the world’s top bantamweight and featherweight fighters, such as champions Jose Aldo and Dominick Cruz. And even though the UFC has its own lightweight division, the WEC created a handful of bona fide stars in the weight class, including champ Benson Henderson and Anthony Pettis.
But now, thanks to the merger, the UFC boasts seven weight classes — from the 135-pound bantamweights to 265-pound heavyweights — and has an estimated 80-90 percent of the world’s top talent in each division.
“As the UFC continues to evolve and grow globally, we want to be able to give fans title fights in every weight division,” UFC President Dana White said.
WEC 52 (Nov. 11) and WEC 53 (Dec. 16) are the promotion’s final two shows, and some WEC fighters have already been booked for upcoming UFC cards.
A few potential drawbacks, though, are hard to ignore. Versus aired 25 of the past 26 WEC events on basic cable. But most of those fights now will come on $45 pay-per-view cards. Additionally, as with the first merging of weight classes, this latest one means some lower-level and younger fighters are likely to lose their jobs.
Those who make the cut, though, benefit from more earning potential and publicity of fighting for a powerhouse that just got more powerful.
Cincinnati’s Straus signs Bellator contract
Daniel Straus, a Cincinnati native who trains with Vision MMA, turned pro in early 2009 and has fought throughout Ohio and Indiana. But a pair of recent high-profile victories over fellow Ohioan Chad Hinton (6-1 at the time) and WEC veteran Karen Darabedyan (9-3) has led to a major deal with the FOX Sports Net-televised Bellator Fighting Championships.
Straus (14-3), who owns a 10-fight win streak, joins the organization’s upcoming season-four featherweight tournament, which commences in early 2011.
“I’ve never been a guy who wants to be a world champion or the biggest star in the game,” Straus said. “I just want to fight some of the top guys in the sport, and Bellator provides that.”
Dann Stupp is editor-in-chief of MMAjunkie.com, voted best media outlet in the 2008 and 2009 World MMA Awards. For the latest mixed
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arts news, go to MMAjunkie.com.
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