Last weekend, World Extreme Cagefighting put on yet another great night of fights with several excellent, fast paced matches between fighters at the very top of their weight classes. This was just the latest in a series of great WEC events with 2009 seeing Faber-Brown II, Torres-Bowles and Brown-Aldo proving that the 135Ibs and 145Ibs weight classes are second to none in terms of in-ring excitement and excellence. And yet while BJ Penn-Kenny Florian main-evented a PPV in lightweight championship fight, and fans are still buzzing from Shogun Rua dismantling Lyoto Machida, only a small audience of MMA diehards saw Brown retain against Faber in a twenty-five minute classic or Bowles shock the seemingly untouchable Torres. That disparity between the level of attention given to the five UFC weight classes and the two WEC weight classes is a symptom of the wider problems created by Zuffa’s handling of the featherweights and bantamweights.
Since the fall of Pride, the UFC has a talent roster that includes almost all the world’s top fighters and has been aggressively marketed as being synonymous with elite-level MMA. Zuffa repeatedly stress that UFC is the place where the best fighters compete and that their championships are the world champions of MMA. Most fans have brought into this vision completely and while ‘superfights’ such as Carano-Cyborg or Rodgers-Fedor may generate interest few people seriously consider other promotions as being on the same level of the UFC. And that is a big problem for the featherweights and bantamweights as many fans naturally assume that these weight classes don’t matter because they‘re not part of the big show, the UFC. By keeping the likes of Torres, Faber and Aldo outside UFC, Zuffa is (whether they like it or not) sending a clear message to fans that these fighters are not on the same level as even the lowest, journeyman UFC fighter. A message reinforced by the existence of a lightweight championship in WEC that is plainly inferior to the title that BJ Penn holds.
Now that would make sense if these two weight classes were genuinely at a level of development beneath the established UFC weight classes. I am not someone who thinks that their should be a billion weight classes or that the UFC should create championships for weight classes that do not have the talent or credibility to justify a world title. But I cannot see how anybody could dispute that over the past year that the featherweights or bantamweights have competed in matches that are the equal of anything done in the heavier weight classes – both weight classes have seen some of the best fights of the year and posses several fighters that operate at the same elite level that fans expect from top-level UFC fighters.
And yet these elite-level fighters are stuck fighting in front on smaller crowds and shown on lesser networks than their colleagues in the UFC. The biggest featherweight and bantamweight fights are not shown on Pay Per View nor are they shown on television around the world. And so despite competing for the ultimate prize in their weight class these fighters receive less exposure and recognition than those fighting in the heavier weight classes. As is shown by the payouts from any WEC event this lack of exposure means that they get paid significantly less than UFC fighters, a financial loss compounded by being less attractive to sponsors than UFC fighters. Why should gifted fighters earn less than people who work for the same company doing the same job?
Is it because featherweight and bantamweight fighters are intrinsically unmarketable? Well the success boxing has had in promoting fights at 147Ibs or lower shows that despite the traditional emphasis on heavyweights American fight fans are interested in seeing fights between lighter fighters. Much of that box office success has been thanks to boxers such as Oscar De La Hoya and the interest they generate in an Hispanic fanbase that is used to seeing fast-paced matches between lighter fighters. Despite being very keen to tap into the fight-hungry Hispanic market the UFC has failed to capitalize on the obvious marketability of such Hispanic fighters as Torres and Faber instead being content to put all their energies into making Cain Velasquez their own Chris Arreola. And not only are the fighters marketable but the fights often tend to be the all action fights that capture the attention of casual fans.
The UFC would also benefit from having two additional world championships to showcase on its shows – as the past few months have shown the days of the UFC being able to rely on its five champions fighting three times a year are over. With the stakes always getting higher, champions are less willing to rush into championship fights with injuries or without the time to properly prepare. In 2009 there have been only nine title fights across the five weight classes and there have been five major UFC PPVs that have had a non-championship main event. Those five PPVs were all met with apathy by a fanbase conditioned to expect a championship fight to headline all important shows. As the pressures on their schedule intensify the UFC could really use an extra four or five title fights to headline its pay per views. The successful reintroduction of a lightweight championship in the UFC shows how quickly a weight class can be established in the UFC and its championship accepted as legitimate by the fans.
And just as former welterweight contender such as BJ Penn moved down to lightweight when the two weight classes were put on a level playing field integrating the featherweight and bantamweight weight-classes into the UFC would encourage smaller lightweight fights to move down to their natural weight. An obvious candidate to move down would be Clay Guida, a popular fighter who despite his wrestling ability struggles to control larger opponents on the ground. It would also solve the looming problem of BJ Penn cleaning out the lightweight division by having him attempt to become the first ever three-weight champion in UFC history.
Not only is Zuffa missing an opportunity with the bantamweights and featherweights but its not maximizing the opportunities generated by having WEC as a sister organization. Having the WEC present elite-level fights is pointless as the fights can never get the same-level of exposure as they would in the UFC and any attempts to increase the profile of the WEC run up against Zuffa’s constant marketing of the UFC as being synonymous with MMA. But what WEC can be is a minor league to the UFC’s major league. Acting as a feeder promotion WEC could help Zuffa blood young fighters who are not quite at the UFC level or keep popular journeymen under contract. As an added benefit, having such fighters contracted to the WEC would limit the number of fighters available to Strikeforce and so prevent their competitor develop a deeper talent roster. Having the WEC set up in such a way would also give Zuffa greater scope to experiment with new concepts (such as additional weight classes) that they may want to test before introducing into the UFC.
There are very few times when I look at what Dana White does and just shake my head in disbelief. Usually he gets it right or at the very least corrects his mistakes at the first opportunity. But there is absolutely no upside to the current structure of WEC. It makes no business sense for either the promotion or the fighters to leave so much money on the table and keeping world class featherweights and bantamweights in the minor league goes against every sane sporting principle. Its never easy to radically change things and they’ll certainly be teething problems during any transition but inertia is not a good enough reason to keep limping on as they currently are. The featherweights and bantamweights are already on a par with the other Zuffa weight classes but until they are part of the UFC that will sadly be one of the best kept secrets in MMA.
