As we have been anticipating for some time now, the WEC officially announced today that they will be dropping their heavyweight and light heavyweight division starting in 2009.
From the official announcement:
The WEC also announced that, starting in 2009, the organization will focus on four weight classes: welterweight (170 pounds), lightweight (155 pounds), featherweight (145 pounds), and bantamweight (135 pounds). The WEC will no longer actively promote light heavyweight and middleweight fights after the Dec. 3rd event. This increased attention to the sport’s lighter divisions makes the WEC the undisputed home of the most exciting lighter weight fighters in mixed martial arts.
‘With every fight, the WEC has proven itself to be a powerful and growing presence in sports, both with our live events and our programming on VERSUS,” said Peter Dropick, WEC Vice President, Operations and Production. “Exciting matchups like Torres vs. Tapia on Dec. 3 and the incredible fights we have planned for 2009 under this new structure will no doubt establish WEC as the home of the best lighter weight fighters in the world.”
[Source: wec.tv]
What will happen to WEC fighters currently under contract in the dropped weight classes has not been formally discussed. Most likely, the higher profile fighter’s contracts will be bought by the UFC and the rest of the fighter’s contracts will be purchased back by Zuffa.
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This is probably the best move ever in WEC, why have an organization that does the same thing as the UFC but at a lower level? theres already enough of those orgs, but WEC had that zuffa stamp on it.
Now instead of saying were the same as UFC but low rent, now they can say we specialize in the lighter weight classes unlike the UFC. This is something they should have done from the jump, but they thought they could groom fighters on the way up. As we have seen not much of that has happened (big fish little pond syndrome).
So we can see the little guys in WEC and hopefully we could even see some of the japanese fighters from Dream come over and WEC could really blow up.
well lets all hope to see a few of the better fighters get picked up by the UFC, like Paulo Filho would be a great addition to the UFC middleweight division. and on the subject of good middleweights, i keep hearing everyone talking about how Matt Lindland could beat Anderson Silva….. what do you guys think about this? i dont think he would do any better then anyone else has done in the recent past, but most other people i talk to are even calling Anderson the underdog if those two were to fight. so if someone has a good argument about why Lindland wins that fight please let me hear it, because i just dont see it.
Ive never been a Lindland fan, though i dont doubt his skill, hes a tough dude and hes great on the ground. The thing is, styles makes fights and MAtts only hope of winning is to submit Silva or lay on top of him.
In my opinion he has no chance of submitting Silva, his defense is way too strong fro that, he even submitted Lutter. I highly doubt he will be able to hold Silva down for 5 rounds assuming this is a champ fight, thats just too long a time to control Silva, he will eventually escape.
I think the only way to beat him is on the feet which is even more dangerous than his ground game. The only thing we havent seen is Silvas chin get tested, so if thats solid, there may be no way to beat this guy! lol unless he has an off day ofcourse.
As for Lindland, no i dont see him winning and no i dont see him as the favorite.
paulo filho sucked in his last fight
Ok who saw Sengoku? very anti climactic night for cyborg. like 30 sec into the 1st round they lock up and cyborb gets double overhooks. They battle for the takedown and both their weight ends up on cyborgs elbow which is sticking out because of the overhook. Blam, i dont know if he broke his elbow, or if it traveled up to his shoulder, but that was all she wrote.
The most annoying part was his opponent jumps up and starts running around screaming his head off, as if he did anything to win the fight. He was a little too happy for a guy who didnt even throw a punch in the fight. Granted he upset cyborg, but he took it way too far man, jumpin on the ropes and acting all hard an ****..
doc
im meatin dan henderson on friday.. ill email you a pic
cool.
enjoy man
Where you meeting him Patrick? by the way, dont tell him he sucks lol.
lol bv… although he has had a fun time adjusting to the ufc i still like hollywood…. hes coming to the tampa bay international mall.. autographs at nordstroms…
doc whats also going on what kj i thought they gave him a week like two weeks ago
According to Gegard Mousasi in an interview, Fedor will be fighting Barnett in Afflictions 2nd event in january. Considering Gegard is with red devil, its probably true and they have definatley been talking about it.
Mousasi did a great job in the dream GP, kind of a dark horse, he really surprised me taking out Kang and Manhoef. Anyways, hes set to face Vitor Belfort which could be an interesting fight depending on how Vitor performs.
Does anybody know what’s going on with Shogun?
Nothing Official Vegas, but in an interview like 2-3 weeks ago shogun said this.
“Rashad fought the perfect fight, he obviously studied Chuck and worked hard on his game plan,†he said. “He may be undefeated but everyone is there to be beaten and I would like to be the first one to do it.â€
There was alot of speculation about Shogun fighting Rampage or Franklin, but since Rampage is fighting Wandy again and Franklin got Machida, it will probably be Chuck in 09.
It should be Hendo vs Chuck.
err.. i meant Rashaad