MMA Hot Stuff

Don't Forget To Thank The Fighters

You can say what you will about the sport of Mixed Martial Arts. Whether you love it, hate it or just don't understand it, you can definitely walk away with one understanding of the sport if you have time to watch just about any given fight. A big reason why the fighters are in the cage and doing what they do is because of the fans. Okay so not ALL the fighters are always so generous to their fans but never mind the exceptions. The vast majority of the fighters are extremely thoughtful, respectful and GRATEFUL for their fans.

Think about it. After every fight when Joe Rogan (or whoever) is talking to the winning fighter, the fighter always thanks his team, sponsors and the fans. When was the last time a baseball player thanked the fans? A football player? Okay, you can make the argument they're on a team and not being interviewed individually so I'll make more points.

Name a fighter. Any fighter. Have you ever tried to get into contact with that fighter? Most likely they're on Twitter. Or Facebook. Come on give me a name. You even have the Real Chuck Liddell now on Twitter. Randy Couture? Check. Tito Ortiz? Yep. And no offense but those are exactly the youngest of the fighters! Okay mind you I just mentioned the three fighters that probably need the most help with their Twitter-skills! LOL They're great with posting but not so great with being interactive. But come on, they're at least on there and posting what they're up to right? And why do they do this? Purely for the fans. Umm where's Peyton Manning? Not on Twitter. Reggie Bush on Twitter but let's be real here, it's probably just because Kim Kardashian got him up and going on it! Okay, I kid I kid!

Some fighters are very interactive on their personal websites. Daily video posts? Hello have you been on BJPenn.com? The guy shows you what he eats for every meal. 

Oh you want to roll around with these guys. Most likely you can find a gym in a city near you where there's a top tier fighter that's a household name you can roll around with. I'm not kidding. Of course they're not looking to give free lessons to any Larry or Stan off the street, but if you're a dedicated fighter in the making, these guys have opened gyms and are teaching classes. When they're not personally training for a fight they're most likely helping one of their team mates prepare for a fight. 

And now you're starting to see fighters go one step further in how they interact with fans. Shane Carwin will send you a hand written and signed letter. The guy is BUSY. I mean crazy busy. And he hand writes letters. Who even writes letters now days? You can go to Shane's store http://www.performancemma.com/Shane-Carwin-s/215.htm?Click=1592  buy something and you'll get the letter with the merchandise! 

I just think it's worth noting and making sure the MMA fans (like me) don't take the accessibility of fighters for granted. I think this is one of the many things that makes this sport so special. The next time you see a fighter you should thank him for everything he does since they're so quick to thank us.

UFC 100 FanExpo - Who will be there?

Today the UFC® confirmed the fighters that will be attending the first ever UFC^® Fan Expo™. The two day expo will be held at the Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas July 10th and 11th. The fighters that will be at the expo for meet and greets will be UFC light heavyweight champion Lyoto “The Dragon” Machida, UFC Hall of Famers Royce Gracie and Randy “The Natural” Couture,  and former world champions Chuck “The Iceman” Liddell, “Suga” Rashad Evans, Forrest Griffin, and Quinton “Rampage” Jackson. UFC contenders Kenny Florian, Steve Cantwell, Shane Carwin, Marcus “The Irish Hand Grenade” Davis, Tyson Griffin, Clay Guida, Dustin Hazelett, Keith “The Dean of Mean” Jardine, Anthony “Rumble” Johnson, Martin “The Hitman” Kampmann, Josh Koscheck, Joe Lauzon, Junie Browning, Nate Marquardt, Gray Maynard, Karo Parisyan, Diego “Nightmare” Sanchez, Sean Sherk and Mike Swick will also be meeting fans, along with The Ultimate Fighter winners Nate Diaz and Efrain Escudero.

 Fans of the PRIDE Fighting Championships will have the chance to re-live the excitement of Japan’s classic organization as well, with MMA icons Renzo Gracie and Gary Goodridge being joined by “The Texas Crazy Horse”, Heath Herring, and Brazilian superstars Wanderlei “The Axe Murderer” Silva and Mauricio “Shogun” Rua.

And if that’s not enough MMA star power, the premier fighters of the WEC will be on hand to sign autographs, with current champions Miguel Torres, Mike Brown, and Jamie Varner sharing the convention center floor with Urijah Faber, Jens Pulver, Brian Bowles, Joseph Benavidez, Donald Cerrone, Leonard Garcia, Ben Henderson, and Alex Karalexis.

For a list of bars/restaurants showing the historic UFC 100 Pay Per View event - check out this link.

One Pimped Out Mouthpiece...Or Three Pairs Of Shoes?

After Jens Pulver's heart breaking loss last Sunday at WEC against Josh Grispi he took his mouthpiece out, threw it into the crowd then fell to his knees.

The "cost" of that loss was more than just a loss to his record.

The custom pimped out mouthpiece that said "Lil Evil" across it was approx $1200.00.  Do you know how many pairs of shoes a girl can buy with that much money? Like, three. Three pairs of fancy strappy numbers.

Jens also said he was just quoted and it's going to be approx $2,250.00 to replace the mouthpiece. Why so much more? Maybe the new mouthguard isn't just encrusted in diamonds with the words "Lil Evil" but they also threw in an allowance for his lady to buy those shoes as a way of forgiving him!

Until next time Lil Evil.

WEC Brown vs Faber RECAP

I know I know.. this post is way later than I expected given I was actually AT the event. I've been busy working a new project. More on that later.

WEC put on a great event on Sunday. The crowd was everything you'd expect with it being in Sacramento. EVERYONE in the ARCO Arena went crazy for Urijah. If the guy had sneezed they would have cheered for him.

The first fight on the main card was Josh Grispi vs veteran Jens Pulver. The crowd showed love for Jens but it didn't take Josh long to win the fight. He caught Jens in a guillotine choke 0:33 seconds into the first Round. Jens mentioned the possibility of retiring after that loss. Win or lose Jens is one of those fighters that will always draw a crowd.

The second fight on the main card was between Donald Cerrone and James Krause. Cerrone came into the fight as a heavily favorite against newbie Krause. This was Krause's first fight in the WEC. While they did trade some blows standing, it was Cerrone who walked away with a win by rear naked choke in the first round (4:38).

Does anyone out there know the quickest TKO in MMA? Anyone? Because the SHOCKING fight between Jose Aldo and Cub Swanson very well may be the quickest. After they touched gloves Aldo came in with a FLYING KNEE to Swanson's face. Unfortunately for Swanson he also managed to somehow duck into the knee (at least that's what it looked like from my view). Cub immediately went down and crawled into a ball on the mat in what had to be extreme pain. Then Aldo came in and landed a couple punches while Cub was down to seal it. The entire thing took eight seconds. EIGHT. I had just sent my dad a twitter msg as the ref was giving the "obey my command" speech. I said "Dad this will be a good fight, Aldo is great and Cub is one of my favorites in the WEC." Send. Then it was over. I'm sure it was over before my dad had a chance to even read the Direct Msg through Twitter. Then I got one back that said "Ouch." And yes, I agree. Ouch. The crowd immediately started talking about Jose getting the winner between Brown and Faber. We'll see....

THE MAIN EVENT....Defending WEC Featherweight Champ Mike Brown vs Urijah Faber. Again the home town crowd couldn't get enough of the California Kid. The corn rows. The entrance music. And I get it. He's their California Kid from their home town. But the disrespect of Mike Brown was a little surprising. Flipping him off as he walked out. Again I get the enthusiasm, but show the guy a little respect he is a person after all. Okay, sorry, that was the girl in me.

If you didn't have a chance to watch the fight Sunday night and weren't smart enough to record it, VERSUS will be replaying it. It's a must watch fight.

It ended up going all five rounds and the judge's scored it as an unanimous decision (49-46, 49-46, 48-47) but Urijah broke his right hand pretty early on. Even with the broken hand he continued with intense kicks and almost got Mike in a deep choke in the fifth round that got the crowd's hopes up. Brown showed everyone why he's still the WEC Featherweight Champion! To quote a very smart person, "Mike Brown is a man... With that beard, I think he'll kill a bear after he fights Urijah. Enough said.

As of this morning, Urijah was heading into surgery to repair his broken right hand. Oh if you want to see a picture of the xray you're in luck because Urijah twittered it 

Looks like according to his twitter there's a possibility his left hand may be fractured as well.

While Mike is strutting around his living room wearing the belt as I type this, I'm sure we'll see a do-over between these two. Mike Brown vs Urijah Faber III ?

Week in Review: UFC WEC And Everything In Between

Hi ladies
wow, where have I been?! My body was kind enough to turn a common cold into bronchitis during the weekend of UFC 98 and forced me to take a week "off". But I'm feeling much better and there has been a lot going on!

While UFC 98 has come and gone I need to fess up and say my picks were ALL WRONG. And to those of you that emailed me to point that out, thanks captain obvious(es) and good job in picking the favorites. I had the pleasure of taking my dad to the fights and he had a great time. While you may have better seats while watching the fights at home there's nothing like feeling the excitement in the arena.

Frankie Edgar did an outstanding job against Sean Sherk and I owe him mad props. While I knew Frankie would do well he showed everyone he is deserving of these great match ups. I'm definitely excited to see what is in store for him!

Ohhh so sad. That Matt Serra vs Matt Hughes fight was the fight I was really looking forward to. Hughes had his hands down half way through the first round. Neither of them did a stellar job, but it was a pretty good fight. I had the first round going to Serra, second round going to Hughes and the third round going to Serra. So when it came down to judge's decision, I really thought Serra had won. And frankly, by the expression and body language of both Hughes and Serra I think they both thought Serra had won as well. Everyone in the crowd around me and my Tweeps (people on Twitter) thought the same thing. I guess as the saying goes "Never Leave It Up To The Judges" is very fitting here in this situation. The judges probably saw something that the rest of us didn't.

The Evans vs Machida fight was great. While I thought Evans would have won the fight it was exciting for sure. When Machida knocked Evans out in the second round seeing Evans buckle like that left my mouth open for two minutes. Perhaps we'll be seeing Lyoto face off with Shogun Rua at UFC 104.

All old news but for me the highlight was not only taking my dad to his first UFC event but seeing him get into it and actually say to me stuff like "What a great take down" and knowing the specific hold and submission names really impressed me. I had a great time with him. Thanks for going dad!

Other news worthy items you should know about:

• Mirko "Cro Cop" Filipovic (24-6-2 MMA, 1-2 UFC) will return to the UFC and fight Mostapha Al-Turk (6-4 MMA, 0-1 UFC) at next weekend's UFC 99 event.
• EA Sports announced they will release a MMA-themed video game "EA Sports MMA" in 2010. This is another sign how mainstream MMA going. Video games will help reach the younger demographic even more than they are now.
• It was announced that Rampage Jackson and Rashad Evans are the new coaches for The Ultimate Fighter.
• Tune in to WEC 41 to not only watch Mike Brown defend his title against Urijah Faber but our friend Kenny Florian will be the commentator. Super excited for this card.
• Frank Trigg signed a new deal with the UFC.

June is not only the month of my birthday (33, already?) but it's also a great month for MMA addicts.

EVENTS
June 5th - Bellator Fighting Championships Week 10
June 6th - Strikeforce Robbie Lawler vs Jake Shields (oh yeah AND Andrei Arlovski vs Brett Rogers as well as Nick Diaz vs Scott Smith) YAY
June 7th - WEC Mike Brown vs Urijah Faber
June 12th - Bellator Fighting Championships Week 11
June 13th - UFC 99 Rich Franklin vs. Wanderlei Silva (Marcus Davis vs Dan Hardy also on this card)
June 19th - Strikeforce Challengers: Santos vs Villasenor
June 19th - Bellator Fighting Championships Week 12
June 20th - The Ultimate Fighter Finale 9 (Yes we'll get to see TUF finals but also on the card is Clay Guida vs. Diego Sanchez  and Nate Diaz vs Joe Daddy Stevenson) WTF Chris Lytle is on the prelim card? Breaks my heart. Hopefully he still tries for fight of the night honors!

All in all a great month for MMA fans. More to come. More frequently I promise.

 

A Great Month To Be A MMA Fan!

What a way to start a new year!

January is mapped out to be a killermonth for MMA Fans! This month we have four star studded events:

·         Jan. 17^th– UFC 93: Dublin (PPV)

·         Jan 24^th – Affliction: Day of Reckoning (PPV)

·         Jan 25^th -  WEC 38: Varner vs Cerrone

·         Jan 31^st- UFC 94: St Pierre vs Penn II

UFC 93 is being held in Dublin, Ireland  In the light heavyweight main event, former two-division world champion Dan Henderson will collide with former UFC middleweight king Rich Franklin in three-round war which will set the tone for the 205lbs division in 2009.

With more than just a win on the line, the winner of Franklin vs Henderson fight will be "crowned" the next coach for the upcoming season of The Ultimate Fighter alongside Michael Bisping.

Then, 2005 PRIDE® Grand Prix Champion Mauricio “Shogun” Rua returns to the Octagon™  to throw down with UFC Hall of Famer Mark Coleman in a rematch MMA fans thought they would never see. The pair last met in Japan in 2006, with the legendary Coleman pulling off a stunning upset by breaking Rua’s arm in the first round.

Also making his UFC debut is former PRIDE standout Denis Kang!

The match-ups for the event are:
MAIN CARD

• Dan Henderson vs. Rich Franklin
• Mark Coleman vs. Mauricio "Shogun" Rua
• Alan Belcher vs. Denis Kang
• Jeremy Horn vs. Rousimar Palhares
• Marcus Davis vs. Chris Lytle

PRELIMINARY CARD

• Alexandre Barros vs. Martin Kampmann
• Antonio Mendes vs. Eric Schafer
• Thomasz Drwal vs. Ivan Serati
• Tom Egan vs. John Hathaway
• Denis Siver vs. Nate Mohr

Affliction Day of Reckoning  This event is being promoted by Affliction Entertainment and is scheduled to take place in Anaheim, California at the Honda Center. The event was originally scheduled for October 11, 2008 at the Thomas and Mack Center in Las Vegas, Nevada. FormerUFC light-heavyweight champion Tito Ortiz will be a commentator for the event. Tickets are still available at www.ticketmaster.com

The main event features current World Alliance of Mixed Martial Arts(WAMMA) Heavyweight Champion Fedor Emelianenko defending his belt against former UFCHeavyweight Champion Andrei Arlovski. Also on the card is Josh "Babyface Assassin" Barnett who takes on Gilbert Yvel. In a light-heavyweight match, current Strikeforce Champion Renato "Babalu" Sobraltakes on former UFC fighter Rameau Thierry Sokoudjou. Matt Lindland was re-assigned from a 195-pound catchweight bout with Sobral to a middleweight matchup against former UFC Light-Heavyweight Champion Vitor Belfort.

Headlining the undercard, which will be broadcast on HDNet Fights, the last IFL Light-Heavyweight Champion Vladimir Matyushenko will take on PRIDE veteran (and twin brother of Antônio RodrigoNogueira) Antonio Rogerio Nogueira.

The match ups for the event are:

PPV matches

• WAMMA Heavyweight Championship bout: Fedor Emelianenko (Champ) vs. Andrei Arlovski
• Heavyweight bout: Josh Barnett vs. Gilbert Yvel
• Light Heavyweight bout: Renato Sobral vs. Rameau Thierry Sokoudjou
• Middleweight bout: Matt Lindland vs. Vitor Belfort
• Lightweight bout: Chris Horodecki vs. Dan Lauzon
• Heavyweight bout: Paul Buentello vs. Kiril Sidelnikov

HDNet matches

• Light Heavyweight bout: Vladimir Matyushenko  vs. Antonio Rogerio Nogueira
• Welterweight bout: Jay Hieron vs. Jason High
• Featherweight bout: Mark Hominick vs. LC Davis
• Featherweight bout: Albert Rios vs. Antonio Duarte
• Welterweight bout: Brett Cooper vs. Patrick Speight

WEC 38 will bring not only a title fight but also the highly anticpaited rematch between former WEC Featherweight Champion Urijah Faber and Jens Pulver! I don't know why but when I see these two in the cage the song "Eye of the Tiger" runs through my head. The event will take placein San Diego at the San Diego Sports Arena and is expected to air on the Versus Network.

Varner will be making his second title defense after winning the belt. His last fight was an amazing KO victory over Marcus Hicks. Donald "Cowboy" Cerrone is coming into the fight on a high note after defeatingformer lightweight champion "Razor" Rob McCullough in one of the most exciting fights of 2008. Varner has great wrestling and boxing skills, while Cerrone brings great boxing and a wicked submission game. Not to mention that Cerrone fights out of Greg Jackson's camp, so you know he'll come in prepared with a great game plan.

The match ups for the event are:

MAIN CARD

• Lightweight Championship bout: Jamie Varner vs. Donald Cerrone
• Featherweight bout: Urijah Faber vs. Jens Pulver^]
• Welterweight bout: Danillo Villefort vs. Mike Campabell
• Featherweight bout: Jose Aldo vs. Fredson Paixao

PRELIMINARY CARD

• Welterweight bout: Hiromitsu Miur  vs. Edgar Garcia
• Lightweight bout: Ed Ratcliff vs. Anthony Njokuani
• Bantamweight bout: Dominick Cruz vs. Ian McCall
• Welterweight bout: Blas Avena vs. Jesse Lennox
• Bantamweight bout: Scott Jorgensen vs. Frank Gomez
• Bantamweight bout: Charlie Valencia vs. Seth Dikun

UFC 94 - St Pierre vs Penn 2 In March 2006, top welterweights Georges St-Pierre and BJ Penn fought for the division’s No. 1 contender’s spot. St-Pierre earned a razor-thin split decision and went on to win the Ultimate Fighting Championship® welterweight title. Penn dropped to the lightweight division and won the organization’s 155-pound title.

Now they’re about to do it again. But this time, there’s much more at stake. UFC® lightweight champion BJ Penn looks to be the first fighter in history to hold two UFC® championships at the same time when he faces Georges St-Pierre for the UFC® welterweight championship at UFC® 94: ST-PIERRE VS. PENN 2

Also on the card is the American Psycho, Stephan Bonnar taking on the quick rising star Jon Jones, aka Bones. As well as Lyoto Machida, as he returns to the Octagon to continue his run towards a light heavyweight title shot. I also can't wait to see one of our bay area boys Nate Diaz taking on Clay "The Carpenter" Guida! You know a card is packed full of great fights when a fighter such as Jon Fitch is on the preliminary card!

The rest of the match ups are:
MAIN CARD

• Welterweight champ Georges St. Pierre vs. lightweight champ B.J. Penn (for welterweight title)
• Lyoto Machida vs. Thiago Silva
• Stephan Bonnar vs. Jon Jones
• Karo Parisyan vs. Dong Hyun Kim
• Nate Diaz vs. Clay Guida

PRELIMINARY CARD

• Jon Fitch vs. Akihiro Gono
• Manny Gamburyan vs. Thiago Tavares
• John Howard vs. Chris Wilson
• Jake O'Brien vs. Christian Wellisch
• Matt Arroyo vs. Dan Cramer

As you can see, January is packed full of great MMA events, including one of the biggest fights in UFC history as BJ Penn attempts to show he's one of the best pound-for-pound fighters in the world. My predictions will soon follow!!!Also check back for a listing of bars in your area showing the PayPerView events!

WEC: Faber goes down, Garcia dominates, and Filho is crazy

What a night of WEC fights... Most of which seemed to over rather quickly, except of course for the one we all were wishing would mercifully end, but just wouldn't.

We'll recap three fights for you. First, Leonard Garia VS Jens Pulver:

The fighters come out, Garcia looking like the bigger fighter. They exchange a few punches and Garvia throws a few kicks while the fighters feel each other out. Once or twice Garcia retreats quickly as Pulver is looking for his shots. Garcia lands a right hand, and then another one that rocks Pulver. Pulver moves back, shakes his head, wobbles a bit and wipes his nose to check for blood... once he did that, you could feel the end was near, and apparently Garcia felt it too. He moved in with more devastating strikes as Pulver was backed up against the cage. Pulver collapses one leg down and Garcia continues to tee off on him until the ref steps in to stop the fight.

Dominating win for Garcia who states that he wants and deserves a title shot in his post-fight interview.

Next up, Paulo Filho VS Chael Sonnen:

The first round sees Sonnen looking to repeat his game plan from the previous fight. Using his reach, keeping it standing, and stuffing the takedown. Filho attempts the takedown, but Sonnen stuffs it. Filho rolls to his back inviting Sonnen into his guard and the ground game. Sonnen actually considers it, holding the ankles and looking to land strikes. The crowd does not like it as it's not only boring, but everyone has to be wondering what the hell Sonnen is thinking after the ending of the last fight. Round one ends in an uneventful manner, but with Sonnen winning through superior striking as well as controlling the pace.

Round 2 sees more of the same, only this time Sonnen has clearly listened to his corner and backs out each time Filho tries to get him to enter his guard. Another boring round of Sonnen using his reach and superior striking, and Filho using his... well... his... using his... NOTHING.

Round 3, and guess what... more of the same. Only this time, Sonnen actually considers entering Filho's guard at one point, probably more out of pure boredom than anything else. Frank Mir actually states that if Sonnen goes to the ground and gets caught in an armbar, he will attack Sonnen at the gate. Sonnen thinks better of it and continues to keep the fight standing, using his reach and combinations to win the round. The only thing Filho did was make a few lazy attempts at a shot, throw a total of about 4 overhand rights, and talk to an imaginary friend in the cage (no seriously... he kept looking at something and talking to "someone", even Frank Mir asked "who is he talking too? Did you see that? Who is he looking at?").

The funniest moment of the fight came right after the bell at the end of the third round. Sonnen put his hand up to high-five Filho, and when he realized that Filho was completely out of it and had a look as though he didn't even know where he was or what was going on, Sonnen actually ducked and backed away clearly thinking Filho might punch him.

Sonnen wins the fight. It was boring, but not Sonnen's fault. Sonnen followed the game plan to win, and Filho made little to no attempt to engage, win, or even make it respectable. All in all I feel bad for Sonnen who clearly prepared for a 5 round battle for the belt, and had his dream and opportunity stolen away through no fault of his own.

On to the main event, the featherweight title bout... Mike Brown VS Urijah Faber:

The fighters come out and feel each other out. Faber lands a fefw quick shots... he really is quick, with very quick hands. Brown however stays in the pocket and looks for combos. Brown looks to take Faber down with double underhooks but Faber gets away and they end up against the cage. Faber gets a thai clinch and lands a knee while Brown retaliates with a few upper cuts. Brown back Faber up agains the fence, drops to double and gets Faber down. However, Faber pops right back up and fights away. Brown lands a right hand that wobble Faber up agains the fence. Brown approaches and Faber attempts to land a backside elbow, but Brown steps in with a hard right hook that lands right on the money. Faber goes down on his back and Brown follows him down, Faber rolls to his knees, clearly still rocked. Brown lands right hands from underneath, and when Faber doesn't attempt to improve position the ref jumps in and stops the fight.

Mike Brown is your new WEC Featherweight champion.

MMA Weekend: WEC & EliteXC Recap

What a weekend! We had quite a bit of MMA action to keep us entertained and glued to the TV.

First we had the debut of MMA on primetime television with CBS’ EliteXC Saturday Night Fights. According to The Hollywood Reporter the Saturday Night Fights Special brought in 4.3 million viewers, and that does NOT include the viewers for the main event, Kimbo Slice VS James Thompson.

The delays in the event pushed the main event of the night past the primetime cut off, and therefore will have separate rankings. Opinions of the broadcast seem to be varied. According to Kevin Iole of Yahoo! Sports, “there was more chatting than “The Tonight Show”, and “when it was 70 minutes into the show, there had been just 2:12 of fighting”. I definitely agree their production needs some work and fine tuning, but at the same time it must be tough to plan an event with fights that could last anywhere from 10 seconds to 15 or 25 minutes.

First topic from the EliteXC show is the fight between female MMA poster-child Gina Carano and Kaitlin Young. Going into this fight there was no question about which fighter had the better skill set, the question was whether or not Carano’s newfound success in Hollywood would interfere with her MMA career. Case in point, Carano didn’t make weight, and not by a little either, but by 4.5 pounds. In return for missing weight and for Young still agreeing to fight, Carano had to fork over a portion of her purse to Young (the rumor is 12%).

WEC: Faber VS Pulver Press Conference

Video of Urijah Faber and Jens Pulver discussing their upcoming battle, billed as the greatest featherweight fight ever. A few hours from now, we'll know who the best 145-pounder in the history of MMA is.

WEC: The lighter weight classes have found a home!

Have you noticed that the WEC is really promoting the lighter weight classes? We all know that the UFC doesn’t feature weight classes below lightweight (155), but the WEC seems to be really pushing these fighters!

On this Sunday’s WEC card, only 3 of the 11 total fights take place in weight classes above lightweight. The WEC and UFC, although owned by the same company, have remained very separate entities and have said they will not have any co-promotions putting WEC fighters against UFC fighters.

 

The WEC has some great fighters in the higher weight classes, such as Brian Stann and Carlos Condit. However, the lighter fighters seem to be the WEC’s branding strength and what allows them to not compete for fans with the UFC, but instead share fans and find new fans.