Planet Tapout 4.29.08: Welcome to the WFC!

Posted by Lotfi Sariahmed on 04.29.2008

So the UFC is cutting fighters. In this week's edition of Planet Tapout, 411Mania's Lotfi Sariahmed offers the UFC some advice. Instead of trying to cut down your roster, why not merge? We introduce you to the WFC and give you Miscellaneous Musings in the latest edition!

Welcome to the MMA column that never waits to hear its name called in the Draft. It's Planet Tapout here at 411Mania.com and this is the man who also signed his deal before the Draft, Lotfi Sariahmed. Another mailbag this week and one of these is GOLDEN…lets get to it.

Mailbag!
"DrbDan" starts us off after my column last week on fighters changing weights.

I think they should do Lutter vs. McCarthy (on the undercard, please god not on TV) in a loser gets fired match. Also, Starnes is no longer in the UFC. Depending on what you read he either requested a release or was fired. Either way good riddance.

Well Dan, Starnes and Lutter have been released. McCarthy has retired and the MMA world is a bit brighter. Although kudos for the WWE stipulation in an MMA match, I'm a fan.


Romano rips me based on what he thinks I said…

Please tell me that English isn't your first language...your rambling made as much sense as my ex does when her hormones are up and aunt flo is in town...dude, GSP has too much on his plate? GSP vs. Silva is potentially the biggest fight in the history of MMA and while it may be painful to miss out on GSP dominating another wrestler (Fitch), I'd be willing to miss that potential fight of the century (sarcasm in case English is your second language) for a shot at seeing what could be the biggest fight ever.

As far as GSP not being big enough...well to stay at middleweight that might be a consideration (though I think that he's plenty big enough to fight at 185) but silva started at 170 and is a small middleweight, therefore it's an irrelevant point all together.

Franklin to the WEC???? Are you high? Let's send a superstar with a million dollar contract to the minor leagues...yeah that makes sense...Pulver is past his prime and too tiny for 155, that's why he moved, Franklin is a big enough star to stay in the UFC and have a helluva career with or without the strap.

Sorry if that came off harsh, but you gotta take your licks if you wanna learn how not to be stupid you moron...ok that was a joke...truly, i'm not that harsh.

First of all, I spent 15 minutes going through your comment just to make sure people could understand it when I put it up. For all you know English could be my third language and I'd still have a better grasp on it than you do. Now onto the multiple points I made that you blatantly disregarded…

Nowhere did I say that I didn't want to see a GSP v. Silva match. My point about GSP having too much on his plate right now is that what if Jon Fitch beats him? Then you lose that allure anyway. Why do it now and risk knocking down a champ's popularity? And just because Silva went up from 170 to 185 means almost nothing in terms of what GSP will do when it comes to managing the weight.

Your comment on Franklin is what takes the cake for me because you CLEARLY did not read the column and decided to rip on me anyway. Let me give you the exact excerpt from Planet Tapout last week shall we?

But what about a move to the WEC? This is another idea I've heard tossed around and it doesn't come from a bad place. The WEC could always use more big time fighters and bringing in Franklin would certainly be a boost for the division. For as bad as Paulo Filho has looked, a Filho v. Franklin fight would be very entertaining. Don't forget that the middleweight title fight in the WEC right now has Filho taking on Chael Sonnen and it's a fight you will never sell me on. So Franklin in the WEC can only help. But is it necessary? I don't understand why everyone wants to move Franklin somewhere because he can't get a title shot any time soon. Does that mean he can't fight anyone else? How about Nate Marquardt? Dan Henderson would probably give middleweight another go for Franklin. A 2nd Okami fight? Franklin v. Bisping? I mean the UFC's middleweight division is the 2nd worst behind heavyweight so to take away a big name makes no sense. Especially if there are still big fights out there for you.

You Romano are an idiot.


Jamie finishes up trying to defend Travis Lutter
Why are people so hard on Lutter? He did not lose to a chump. He doesn't need to be in co-main events, but he should not get fired. I'd still favor him over Quarry, Leben, Grove, etc. I think he could definitely be valuable in a role that is similar to Chris Lytle's.

Jamie, you are a better man than all of us for defending Travis Lutter and while he did get released this week you should still be commended. But let me explain why people are so hard on him. He had the chance to fight for the middleweight title and failed to make weight. He would have garnered more respect had he been choked out in 15 seconds. A fighter's main job is to make weight for a fight. He didn't do that. Then he follows it up with this performance against Rich Franklin where he gassed out in the 2nd round. It's hard to get behind a fighter that seemingly doesn't put enough into his own training.

Send me emails or comments. I don't discriminate. The email address is [e-mail]. Now onward to Planet Tapout!



Do you like it? I spent entirely too long in Photoshop working on it. Really it only speaks to my Photoshop skills but I digress. It's the new promotion the WFC, the World Fighting Championship! If you haven't caught on by now, I've merged the UFC with the WEC. And is it crazy? Probably. But there's a method behind my madness…allow me to explain.

As I touched on earlier, Travis Lutter, Charles McCarthy and Kalib Starnes have all been released/let go/retired from the UFC after less than stellar performances at UFC 83. This comes on the heels of some rumors that the UFC will be cutting some more fighters soon. There's also the WEC welterweight champ Carlos Condit, who has expressed interest in unifying the UFC and WEC belts. Then there's the latest blog from Dave Meltzer on Yahoo Sports, who has some very interesting things to say on where the UFC could be headed.

But it's also the beginning of what are expected to be massive cuts. The company has approximately 200 fighters on the roster, but doesn't run enough events to keep that many fighters working three fights per year.

The decision has apparently been made not to stockpile fighters on contract to keep groups attempting to be competition from signing them.

There is no set number of how many cuts are forthcoming, but the total easily could top 50.

At the biggest risk are fighters who lose boring fights, or lose several fights in a row. The company is trying to emphasize action fights, using both the threats of not bringing people back with boring fights, and increasing the performance bonuses for having the best match or best finish on pay-per view events to $75,000.

So the UFC looks to be downsizing while the WEC needs to gain notoriety. Zuffa owns them both, so I say why not merge the two promotions and solve all your problems. Sure this might be nothing but a pipe dream but I've been given this space to elaborate on the pipe dream. So allow me to explain why this makes sense.

Why bring two organizations together when one is looking to cut back? Well for one it'll help trim the fat if you will. It's a bit of a "the cream will rise to the top" theory. And it works two-fold. The WEC is a promotion that was put together to highlight the lighter weights but is suffering from the stigma that it's UFC-light. Unless you're in the 145-lb or 135-lb divisions, a move to the WEC really comes off as a demotion and I don't know if that's something that the WEC can shake. So if you bring these two organizations together, it helps trim the fat in the UFC and gives the WEC the proper platform upon which to be showcased.

But how do you do that? Well don't worry I have that part covered as well (at least in my head). While the IFL teeters on the brink of obscurity for a lot of people, it has done something that the UFC might be able to pick up on. Three title fights an event. With as many events as the UFC puts on, it is understandable the promotion can't put a title fight on every card (take UFC 85 for example). However, bring in the WEC and away go your problems. Two more divisions give you two more belts up for grabs and no reason you don't have a title fight on every PPV card and even the occasional card with two PPV title bouts. How about that for a solution? Don't forget the title unification bouts you could have. Sure some would be more competitive than others but title unification bouts can usually sell themselves. You'd have the following bouts:

Light Heavyweight—Brian Stann v. Quinton Jackson
Middleweight—Anderson Silva v. Paulo Filho
Welterweight—Carlos Condit v. Georges St. Pierre
Lightweight—BJ Penn v. Jamie Varner

Forget the middleweight bout for a second. You're lying to yourself if you're not interested in any of the other bouts. The effects of a move like this would no doubt have wide ranging consequences. They're going to let go of a talent runs into a dry spell and returns with another organization. EliteXC's deal with CBS could help turn one of those aforementioned fighters into a huge star. But if you're the UFC, isn't it better to have one very strong organization as opposed to two that are potentially stretching themselves too far?


Miscellaneous Musings!
●I'd give you my picks on the Dream card but by the time you read this, the card probably already happened. So instead I'll say this, the middleweight GP is nowhere NEAR as good as the lightweight one. On top of that, how many times are we going to get all hyped up over JZ v. Aoki?

●The UFC did an outstanding job scrambling to find a new main event for UFC 85. Sure there's no title on the line which you could go crazy about but given the circumstances it's a great bout. I like Matt Hughes to win because he's still Matt Hughes, it's just now he can't beat GSP. And as for Thiago Alves this will be a great test. Hughes is going to take him down and try and pound out a win. Lets see if Alves can stop it.

●Anyone excited about Josh Barnett v. Jeff Monson? Anybody at all?

●Since this happened after my column last week, kudos to Rich Clementi for stepping up and being on back-to-back cards. Impressive work.

●MAYHEM MILLER IS FIGHTING ON DREAM 3 AGAINST KATSUYORI SHIBATA! And I'm excited.


That's it for this week on Planet Tapout! Don't forget about the mailbag and comments. Send me your thoughts, loving, hateful and otherwise. The email address is [e-mail] .

We like Meehan. He made the banner. So in return go read his column. He went to Wrestlemania. Go read about it.

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Make sure you come back next Tuesday for another edition of Planet Tapout! This week in MMA gives us the Dream 2 card (which by the time you get to this, has probably already happened), and a Shooto card as well as a Full Force card on the 3rd. Enjoy the fights everyone.