WEC to Merge with UFC

So for everyone who has been following this blog for the past few weeks, hopefully you know what the WEC is. For those of you who read and had all information go in one ear and out the other, here's a quick refresher.

WEC was purchased in 2006 by ZUFFA, owners of UFC. Since then it has operated as a sister promotion, featuring smaller fighters in the bantamweight (135lbs), featherweight (145lbs), and lightweight divisions (155lbs). WEC temporarily featured welterweight, middleweight and light heavyweight divisions, but these were ultimately dissolved, with only a select few fighters being welcomed into the UFC.

It wasn't long before people began to realize that smaller fighters brought a new level of speed, aggression, and conditioning that hadn't been seen in larger weight classes. This led to many exciting fights, earning WEC a contract with Versus Network to air multiple events. In a recent interview, Dana White said that the timing was perfect for the UFC and WEC to finally merge, and for the UFC to add the additional smaller weight classes. So what does this mean?

First and foremost, this most immediate change will be the introduction of two new weight classes. Featherweight champion Jose Aldo will retain his title, while the winner of Dominick Cruz vs Scott Jorgenson will be awarded the Bantamweight championship belt. With these two new divisions, the UFC will be able to showcase the smaller, more exciting fighters, as well as champion Aldo who is slowly becoming one of the best pound for pound fighters in the world. It has been rumored that Aldo's first bout under the UFC banner will come at UFC 125 on January 1, 2011, when he defends his FW title against either Mark Hominick or Josh Grispi.

The next area of discussion comes in the form of the WEC lightweight division being absorbed into the UFC's lightweight division. There have recently been several name fighters released by the UFC, including lightweights Efrain Escudero, Rob Emerson, Fabricio Camoes, Matt Veach and several others. It seems these guys were discarded to make room for the incoming roster of WEC fighters. This will provide a lot of interesting match-ups and a change of scenery to the UFC LW division. Rumor has it that the winner of the upcoming UFC LW title bout between Gray Maynard and Frankie Edgar will take on the winner of upcoming WEC LW title bout between Ben Henderson and Anthony Pettis.

While the merger arises the possibility of potential super fights and interesting style clashes, there are also a few setbacks that can't be dismissed. The UFC has been criticized a lot lately for putting on lackluster cards (UFC 119, UFC 120, UFC 122). Events like these are the result of the UFC having too deep of a talent pool, and needing to get all of their fighters time in the Octagon. With the injection of WEC fighters, the UFC talent pool now grows even deeper, meaning we may be subject to even more mediocre cards.

While the UFC has problems with mediocre cards, they also have had a few events featuring too much talent. This basically just means that there are so many big name fighters on a card, that not all of their fights will be aired due to time constraints. Once the WEC fighters come in, this is likely to happen a lot. This is immediately evident with UFC 125, which currently features the LW title bout between Maynard-Edgar, FW title bout between Aldo-TBD, then main card bouts featuring Gomi-Guida, T. Silva-Vera, Nate Diaz-Dong Hyun Kim, Leben-Stann, the debut of lightweight Antonio McKee, and heavyweight Roy Nelson is slated to appear on this card. Thats 8 fights on a card that will only be able to air 5 on PPV.

I know these last two paragraphs sound opposing/contrasting, but trust me, this shit will happen. A lot of people are asking to see fighters like Urijah Faber, Donald Cerrone, Henderson, and Cruz on main card pay-per-views, but in all honesty, expect most of these WEC fighters to either end up on undercards, or else on free events on Spike/Versus.

As far as potential fights go, I don't see much changing in the featherweight or bantamweight division. The biggest change will come in the lightweight division where we can see guys like Edgar, Maynard, Penn, Florian, Gomi, and Guida take on guys like Henderson, Pettis, Cerrone, Varner, Roller and others. The one potential flaw that comes to mind is that the UFC fighters will be much better than their WEC counterparts, thus making the merger pointless.

I am mostly looking forward to seeing how the UFC promotes Jose Aldo, which I'm sure they will like crazy. If Frankie Edgar loses to Gray Maynard at UFC 125, expect Edgar to drop to featherweight where he would be better physically suited, and make a run at Aldo's title.

Ultimately the merger brings a lot of interesting potential matches to the UFC LW division, as well as two new exciting divisions for the MMA community to feast their eyes on. There are still two WEC events under contract before the end of 2010, and the merger will take effect starting immediately in 2011, as I mentioned earlier, with UFC 125 on Jan. 1st.