Blood On The Mat 10.15.09: What To Do With The WEC

Posted by  on 10.15.2009

Over the past few years, the WEC has consistently put on some of the best fights and shows around, so why aren’t more people watching? Should Zuffa fold the WEC into the UFC? 411’s Adam Tool looks at the problems facing the promotion and offers one possible solution in this week’s Blood On The Mat!

Welcome back to Blood On The Mat. My name is Adam Tool and I'm still reeling from this past weekend's action. I enjoyed WEC 43 more than most other events I've seen this year, and the main event is going to make things very interesting when the end-of-year awards come around.


This past Saturday night we were treated to what many are calling "Fight of the Year" as Donald Cerrone and Benson Henderson battled for five rounds over the Interim WEC Lightweight Championship. WEC 43 was an excellent show from top to bottom, but there's no doubt that the evening's highlight was the main event. It was everything we love about MMA with back-and-forth striking exchanges and exciting displays of grappling.


Sure he got hit a lot, but his hair still looks FABULOUS!

As we've seen multiple times this year, exciting main events are par for the course for the UFC's little brother. In 2009 the WEC has put on six events. Four of those events were capped off by fights that have been considered candidates for the best of the year. One of them ended with what is arguably the biggest upset of the year. On top of that, there's still time for at least one more classic bout when Mike Brown defends the WEC Featherweight Championship against Jose Aldo at WEC 44 next month.

So if Cerrone vs. Henderson was (arguably) the best fight of the year, how come less than half a million people saw it? By comparison, more than six times as many viewers tuned in to see Nate Diaz submit Melvin Guillard last month at Fight Night 19. Ratings for UFC programming on Spike have soared, but the WEC still has trouble regularly drawing an audience. So why is this happening?


Like I give a shit

For starters, there isn't anywhere near the same level of brand recognition between the two promotions. WEC is well known by hardcore fans of the sport but that's really as far as it goes. At the same time the UFC is so synonymous with MMA that a good chunk of the population still refers to the sport as "ultimate fighting."

Complimenting that problem is a severe lack of starpower amongst the WEC's roster. The company's biggest name is Urijah Faber, but if you showed his picture to 100 people on the street you would be lucky to have three people that were able to name him. This past weekend's show was severely hurting in that department, as I'm sure there were WEC fans that didn't really know who Ben Henderson was before Saturday.


Now officially the second most famous man in history to be named Benson

There are also the current woes of the WEC's television partner: Versus. The channel formerly known as the Outdoor Life Network doesn't reach nearly as many homes as Spike TV, and that problem got even worse when Versus lost millions of potential viewers as a result of their current pissing contest with DirecTV.

Finally there's the issue of money, which is to say, they aren't making much of it. Since the company runs all their events on cable they're forced to rely almost entirely on their live gate to make a profit. As a result the fighters aren't being paid anything near what the guys in the UFC get. Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira made $400,000 for his UFC 102 win over Randy Couture, which is more than all 22 fighters at WEC 42 made combined.


To be fair, 25% of that was for a "sexiness tax"

There are plenty of people that believe the solution would be to simply merge the two companies. While I would love to see the UFC add feather and bantamweight divisions, I'm not sure if simply getting rid of the WEC is really the best solution for everyone.

When Zuffa first took over running the UFC, they would hold 5-6 events a year with an average of eight fights per show. Now, including Fight Nights and "TUF" Finales, they're on pace to hold 20 events in 2009 with anywhere from 9-13 fights on each card. The roster is already overstuffed with quality fighters, so how would the problem be fixed by adding the many fighters still calling the WEC home?

Over the last year Zuffa has merged every weight class offered by both companies, all except for the lightweights. If the WEC lightweights had been absorbed into the UFC, would we still have gotten the "Fight of the Year" candidate we saw this weekend? It's possible that Cerrone and Henderson still would have been matched up in the UFC, but they certainly wouldn't have met in a championship fight. In fact, chances are their fight wouldn't have even made the main card of a UFC show.

Here's an even better example. When they were in the WEC, Brian Stann and Steve Cantwell each had only lost to each other. The third fight between them would have likely been the main event of a WEC card (especially if it was for the WEC Light Heavyweight Championship), but instead the rubber match took place on the preliminary portion of Fight Night 19.


Dana & Greg quickly realized that these two were all wrong for the Cueball Club

Eliminating the WEC would undoubtedly leave a majority of their fighters lost in the shuffle. The top talent would do fine for themselves, but there's a number of guys that would probably be swallowed whole by the higher levels of competition in the octagon. Jamie Varner went 1-1 in the UFC before moving to the WEC and making it to the top of the lightweight division. Had the option not been there to make the move, would "The Worm" even still be receiving a Zuffa paycheck?

Is there another option to bring more fans (and more money) to the WEC brand of MMA? One that could work with the two companies and their separate television deals equally? Perhaps.

The answer, I believe, lies in co-promotion.

Zuffa could increase synergy between the two brands, allowing them to use the UFC's considerable market presence to increase awareness of the WEC. I'm not talking about the little box in the corner they put up with Goldberg pimping the show, although that doesn't hurt. I'm speaking more along the lines of new marketing strategy that highlights the unique strengths of the WEC promotion. They could easily present the WEC as an alternative to the UFC, showcasing the lighter weight classes and faster paced action.

Here's what I would do: start with an upcoming UFC PPV event, one featuring any of the company's top draws (Lesnar, GSP, Couture, etc). At that show make the co-main event a WEC bout, and make it something big. The best option would be the catchweight super-fight between Urijah Faber and Miguel Torres. Promote the card as a UFC/WEC show, and sprinkle a few more WEC bouts on the preliminary card.


Until the fight happens, we‘ll have to settle for an old-fashioned staring contest

Along with this, they should schedule a WEC show within the following week of the PPV. During the live broadcast they can not only talk about Faber & Torres, they could also use the opportunity to run a video package showing highlights of past WEC fights and promote the upcoming event. If Mike Brown or Brian Bowles are still champions, talk them up as something special (seeing as how they're the guys that beat Faber & Torres).

There's no need to run WEC fights on every UFC PPV, just a few times a year to help get the word out. The process would increase awareness of the WEC brand and it's top fighters, and eventually allow them to branch out into PPV broadcasts solely made up of WEC bouts. They should also see an increase in ratings and attendance for their Versus events, which should help their profit margins.

Will this plan work? I believe so.

What about you?

Feedback is welcome at the e-mail address below, or feel free to use the comment box provided. If you can't wait until next week for more of me, you can always follow me on Twitter.