Over the past few months, rumors of a UFC/WEC merger have spread like wildfire. Dana White fanned the flames at the UFC 102 press conference when he indicated that lighter weight classes from the WEC would be coming to the UFC “soon.”
Inside Fights first spoke with WEC General Manager Reed Harris last month to clarify White’s comments.
“Dana said it, but he didn’t mean the weight classes were being folded into the UFC. He didn’t even realize that he said it until I texted him about it,” said Harris. “He was referring to co-branding and things of that nature. We’re already merged because they own us.”
The rumors continued to circulate, however, and so we contacted Dave Sholler, the public relations director for WEC, to get additional clarification on the story. Sholler’s response was definite:
“No truth to those rumors whatsoever,” said Sholler.
Considering that the UFC is planning on running 25 shows or more in 2010, a WEC merger would actually be a good idea. As we’ve seen with UFC 105, the company is already struggling with finding enough quality main events to fill the shows they are running this year. Bringing the lighter weight class champions over to the UFC would allow many of those cards to have a title fight in the main event slot.
The move would also allow WEC fighters to receive far greater pay and exposure than they currently enjoy.
We may certainly see the WEC weight classes transferred to UFC shows at some point. Right now, though, it’s not in the cards.
