The Little Promotion That Could: the WEC Continues to Thrive, Not Just Survive

Today marks the fiftieth card put on by World Extreme Cagefighting, a promotion that has grown by leaps and bounds since its founding in 2001. Since the UFC bought out the WEC in December 2006, the promotion has shifted its focus to the lighter weight classes, and now shares only one division with its “big brother” promotion (the Lightweight division). As a promotion, the WEC was instrumental in ushering in a new age of 155-and-under MMA, showcasing some of the best fighters in the world on a national stage, making stars overnight and giving MMA fans some of the best pro fights in recent history. Moving forward, here are two things that I think the WEC should do in order to keep expanding.

The first objective is a no-brainer, and the WEC has been rightfully praised for doing this for several years now: signing some of the best fighters in the world and putting them against top talent right out of the gate. The UFC can afford to slowly build its fighters, the WEC has to act now and act fast if they want to get the most out of their athletes. As an example, relatively few WEC fans knew who Chan Sung Jung was, but a lot of people remember Edgar Garcia for his spirited performances both in the WEC and the UFC, which included a shot at the WEC Featherweight Championship. But then Garcia and “The Korean Zombie” gave us one of the best fights of the year, of the past several years in fact. Both fighters had their status elevated, and now that WEC fans know who Chan Sung Jung is, they can’t wait to see who fights him again. It’s always a gamble to take relative unknowns and put them against your more-established stars right away, but the WEC’s smart booking has resulted in far more successes than failures. If they can keep this streak going, there’s no end in sight to all the potentially epic matches.

Pay-Per-View will play a large role in the WEC’s chances for success as time goes on. Their first Pay-Per-View, “Aldo vs. Faber”, was one of the best events of 2010 by far. It took just about every single major-name star being on the card to do the trick, as well as some of the best undercard fights in years, but according to reports, “Aldo vs. Faber” performed better than even the UFC’s highest expectations. I think the WEC should continue to wait until the absolute best fights are available, and then give MMA fans a star-studded card jam-packed with can’t-miss fights. This may unfortunately result in the WEC’s television events leading up to a Pay-Per-View having comparatively weak main-event fights, but this is one sacrifice worth making. The major, big-time money is in Pay-Per-View, and if the WEC can find themselves a niche and turn themselves a profit, they’ll only get bigger and better.

All in all, I can’t wait to see where the WEC goes from here. They’ve always struck me as “the little promotion that could”: surviving when nobody thought they would, thriving against all the odds stacked against them. I myself once embraced the stigma that any fighter below Lightweight just wasn’t worth watching. The WEC proved me dead wrong, and I’m more than happy to give them credit where credit is due. The WEC may never fully step out of the shadow of its “big brother” promotion the UFC, but I don’t see them going out of business anytime soon either. The WEC will continue to expand, and we MMA fans will continue to be treated to some amazing 155-and-under action.

And what do you think, fans and friends? What are some things you think the WEC needs to do to move forward, and where do you think they’ll be in, say, five years or so?