UFC, WEC to Unite in 2011
On Thursday, UFC President Dana White announced that ZUFFA would merge the WEC with the UFC in 2011.
White said during a conference call, “It’s time. As we continue to grow globally, we’re doing enough fights to fold [the WEC] into the UFC.”
White said, all WEC talent would be retained. At the promotion’s final event, WEC 53, in December, WEC featherweight titleholder Jose Aldo will be the new UFC featherweight champion, and the same will go for the winner of Dominick Cruz’s title defense against Scott Jorgensen.
But what about the WEC lightweights? Already, the UFC has its own 155-pound title and a lot of good fighters in that division. Unifying the two belts with a miniature tournament, White said he intends to fold all the WEC lightweights into the UFC.
Additionally, the UFC just penned a new contract with Versus to air four events on the network in 2011, announced White. While the loss of several WEC events on Versus actually decreases the total number of Zuffa-owned shows airing on the network, technically that doubles the number of UFC shows from 2010.
White said, “It’s a positive. We get [more] UFC on Versus. If you ask Versus, they were happy with the WEC’s ratings, but the UFC is going to pull bigger ratings.”
White said, Job security is not exclusive to the WEC’s fighters, as other WEC employees will keep their jobs.