1. A recent Urijah Faber quote contributes to my first thought: “No more explaining to people why I am not in the UFC.” World Extreme Cagefighting was often looked at by mainstream MMA fans as “bush league” and a product not worth watching simply because it was not branded as the UFC. Little did they know that these smaller guys put on a product that constantly produced entertaining cards from top to bottom, and put on the same amount, if not more fight of the year candidates as the UFC. I’m glad for the fighters that have put in their blood, sweat and tears for the sport of MMA to have the same amount of mainstream attention now as UFC fighters. The pay from Zuffa and sponsorships should take a jump, too.
2. Along with the fighters, I’m super excited to see Brittney Palmer, the most recent addition to the UFC Ring Girl team, thrown in the UFC mix. If you don’t know who she is, Google her.
3. I’m shocked that Dana White and the UFC offered Jose Aldo a fight against Kenny Florian before the merger was announced. It would make more sense to establish Jose Aldo as an unstoppable force in his weight division, then introduce the idea of moving him up a weight-class. Even if it is after his first title defense.
4. Dana White has talked about how he wants a fighter calling the events along with Joe Rogan and Mike Goldberg, and with Bonnar regularly calling events for WEC he would be the perfect addition.
5. I remember a while back Dana White saying how he was working on getting WEC their own version of The Ultimate Fighter. Expect a future season of the show to concentrate on the featherweights and bantamweights which are two of the most exciting divisions in MMA. If all the stars align, Urijah Faber and Domimick Cruz could be the next coaches of TUF.
6. With the UFC employing all the fighters and employees from WEC after the merge, it’s almost guaranteed that roster cuts will happen more frequently for people who don’t put on exciting fights on the undercard. This could go one of two ways: a) People will lay and pray more to guarantee themselves victories or b) People will try to end fights in exciting fashion to keep their jobs. Recently the undercards of both promotions have been exciting, so I’m leaning more toward option “B”.
7. Not only do the UFC and fans benefit from this merger, but their competition will greatly benefit from it as well. As mentioned before, roster cuts are inevitable. Whatever roster cuts there are, the fighters (who are UFC caliber fighters) will show up in Strikeforce and Bellator, maybe even DREAM, and raise the prestige in those promotions.
8. If it happens, Benson Henderson against Gray Maynard would be a great fight. Not only would a be a big-fight feel because of the unification, but both men have styles that mesh and create a great fight. Maynard’s submission defense against Nate Diaz was phenomenal, and Henderson’s submissions can blindside you like no other. I’d be more excited for this than Benson Henderson vs. Frankie Edgar.
9. Jose Aldo vs. BJ Penn. I don’t need to say more, but I’ll elaborate anyway. If both men walk out victors in their next fights, there is a very good possibility this will be happening. BJ hasn’t expressed any certain desire to remain in the welterweight division after his fight with Hughes and after Aldo defends his belt against Grispi he may move up to lightweight. The only thing keeping this from happening is Uncle Dana; he likes to ease fighters into new weight-classes. With the potential in marketability this fight has, it’ll be interesting to see where they go with it.
Final Thought: I honestly cannot see how people are upset about the merger. Sure, we don’t get to see the name-brand of WEC put on awesome shows for free on VERSUS. But we get to see even more exciting fights on the UFC pay-per-views that have been lacking lately. UFC as a business benefits off of this as they can put on more shows, and companies like Strikeforce and Bellator are going to benefit from this merger as well. I’m excited to see what the future brings.
You can follow Jon Kirschner on Twitter @mmakirschner.
