The Greatest MMA Column 11.08.08: 10 WEC Ideas For The Year Ahead
Posted by Dan Plunkett on 11.08.2008
After Urijah Faber lost to Mike Brown on Wednesday, yours truly brainstormed and came up with 10 sure fire ideas for the WEC in 2009. After that, I give some quick thoughts on WEC 36, and give you 2 fights in the fight of the week, that's right, a double dosage of awesomeness. So what are you waiting for? Click on that orange link and see what I have to say in what critics claim is "The Greatest MMA Column."
One punch, that's all it takes for one of the best fighters in the world to go down. That's exactly what happened to Urijah Faber on Wednesday night against Mike Brown. Faber looked very fast and crisp with his stand up, but when he clinched, he was overpowered. Mike Brown is simply a bad match up for Faber, he is bigger, stronger, with wrestling skills that are just as good if not better than Faber's. Brown had Faber covering up against the cage early, but Faber recovered quickly. Staying true to his ADHD style of fighting, Faber went for an elbow similar to the one that Anderson Silva used to knockout Tony Fryklund. He missed though, and was hit with a big right hand that dropped him to the ground. Brown then unloaded on Faber until the fight was stopped, finishing the WEC's most dominate champion ever.
The result of the fight forces the WEC to make some changes to their plans for 2009. They had plans of going to pay per view and a reality show, both of which are still likely to happen, but with their biggest draw coming off of a loss; it may take some more time for them to happen. Assuming Faber wins his next fight, here are some ideas for the year ahead:
Reality Show
1. Urijah Faber and Mike Brown as coaches.
For the first season of The Ultimate Fighter, the UFC put two of their best fighters as coaches. Both of those fighters, Randy Couture and Chuck Liddell, became the some of the biggest draws in the sport for years to come. The WEC needs to introduce the audience to two of the best fighters in the division that will be their equivalent to the UFC's light heavyweight division. With Mike Brown and Urijah Faber being the coaches on the show, more interest would be built for what would be an already highly anticipated rematch. This is a great way to build to your first pay per view by having your main event get publicity for a number of weeks on national television.
2. Have a noticeable difference from The Ultimate Fighter.
The last thing the WEC needs is for a viewer to watch the show and change the channel, thinking it is an Ultimate Fighter rip-off. While it will probably be a rip-off of The Ultimate Fighter, the WEC needs to throw in a major difference between the two shows. That difference can't just be the weight class; it would have to do something with how the match ups are decided or maybe the training or housing conditions of the fighters. They could make it based more around the families of the fighters, like in The Contender.
3. Have a strong lead in show.
One the reasons The Ultimate Fighter was so successful, was because it had a highly rated show before it in Monday Night Raw. While no show on Versus does anywhere close to the numbers Monday Night Raw did, the importance of a strong lead in show is still there. They could have a live fight card featuring some of their other champions; depending on what time of year it is they could have an NHL game. After the lead in show is done, some viewers may stick around for the debut of the reality show, which could draw them into the sport of MMA.
4. Show the viewer that the WEC is the UFC's sister company.
This is very important, the UFC is a name that casual fans recognize and trust. If they flip on the WEC show they may think it's just a bunch of scrub fighters that aren't good enough for the UFC, forcing them to turn it off. The WEC show needs to have appearances by UFC fighters, champions, and the man himself, Dana White. These familiar faces will keep the viewer watching and give the show some credibility in their eyes.
5. Season Finale on PPV.
The UFC shows the season finale of The Ultimate Fighter for free, but they can still sell PPV's when the coaches fight. The viewer will have been watching these guys for months trying to make it to the WEC. Show the season finale live on PPV and the viewer will pay to see how this will unfold. Also, make the preliminary card featuring all of the fighters who didn't make it on Versus as a lead in show. This way, it hypes the PPV right before it starts, and fans will get to see their favorite fighters that missed the finale for free. Also, make all of those fights do or die, win and your in the WEC, lose and you're out barring a very good fight. It will add more drama to the fight and draw the viewer into the program.
Pay Per View
6. Coaches fight on season finale PPV.
This is a given. I don't think fans would just pay to see the two guys in the finale fight for the contract, have the two coaches whose fight has been hyped all season fight on the season finale. It would be a fitting ending to the whole experience.
7. Start off with only 3-4 PPV's a year.
The MMA PPV market is very crowded these days. You have the UFC running a dozen shows a year, Affliction doing some, AFL would also be on PPV if they ever actually have a show; even King Of The Cage is running PPV's. With only 3-4 WEC shows per year on PPV, the fight cards would be staked with good, quality fights. This would boost the credibility with the fans so that they could run more PPV's in the coming years.
8. PPV's cost $30 or less. With all of these MMA PPV's going on, many of them costing about $45, MMA fans are going to start being more selective on what they purchase, especially now with the economy struggling. With PPV's that have stacked cards and are relatively cheap, the buyer would be more likely to purchase that PPV. With the smaller venues and low fighter pay the WEC has, this shouldn't be much of a problem for them.
Live Show.
9. Improve Entrances.
While improving the entrances to match those of PRIDE would be ridiculous, the fighter entrances they have now are sub par. While the UFC can get away with that since they're still pulling in hundreds of thousands of PPV buys, the WEC looking more entertaining in terms of production would be a plus. It would make them look like they're the real deal in the casual fan's eyes.
10. Fire Joe Martinez
I can't stand this guy. His voice is too "nasally" if that's a word. If I hear him say "somebody's oh has got to go" one more time I would seriously consider throwing something at the TV. I would strongly suggest to the WEC that they make a major play to get Howard Finkel. The job is only like once a month, so he could still work for the WWE full time.
Ladies and Gentlemen, the next announcer of the WEC
Quick Thoughts: WEC 36
- Overall, the main card was kind of disappointing, only one good fight, the rest were either quick TKO's or BORING.
- There must be something mentally wrong with Paulo Filho, nobody in their right mind would fight the way he did Wednesday night. It looked like he just didn't care about winning.
- I am extremely disappointed they didn't show the Razor/Cerrone fight, I hear it was very good. If you know where I can see this fight, tell me, the legality of how I view it does not concern me at the moment.
- The best fight on the main card was Rosholt vs. Osterneck. It was back and forth and Osterneck could have slowed down Rosholt's massive hype train had he not went for the spinning back fist.
- Jake Rosholt will become a serious threat in the UFC middleweight division, even though he looked sub par on his feet and blocked punches with his face.
- I would love to see Osterneck be given a chance in the UFC.
- Garcia over Pulver was somewhat surprising. Garcia should get the next title shot; I would like to see Jens fight a few more times before I judge him as over the hill.
- It didn't look good for Faber after he couldn't take Brown down, and when he was seemingly fazed very early on before the big knockdown. But still, my jaw hit the floor when Faber lost.
- Chael Sonnen could be a title contender in the UFC, but he still needs more submission defense. He'll beat guys that rely heavily on either stand up or the ground game, but fighters that can put him on his back and guys with both good stand up and ground game will give him trouble.
Fight Of The Week
That's right, it's that time of the column again! Keeping with the featherweight action, we'll take a look at Norifumi "Kid" Yamamoto going up against Kazuyuki Miyata.
I know I know, I can't just have a 4 second fight for the fight of the week, so here is a great fight from PRIDE 33: The Second Coming, it's the then #1 lightweight in the world Takanori Gomi vs. Nick Diaz.
If anybody else wants to go in with me to buy Gina Carano's contract, contact me immediately, I'm pretty sure we would get to meet her, but I get first dibs. For more info Click Here.
That's it for this week. I have absolutely no idea what I'll write about next week; hopefully something newsworthy happens so I don't have to bullshit 1,000 words. But you'll want to check out next week's edition of The Greatest MMA Column, it's for your own good. I'll leave you with the latest edition of ESPN.com's fine program, MMA Live.
