http://www.mmaweekly.com/absolutenm/templates/dailynews.asp?articleid=3229&zoneid=13 So the ZUFFA reign of the WEC is begining. To me it looks like that they will have the lighter weight divisions. Prehaps they shall have Sherk fight the LW Champion in a unification match. Then again they have said that they want to keep the WEC as seperate as possible from the UFC. Prehaps the WEC could end up on Spike to with the UFC seemingly inevitable move to HBO coming up.
No, they are going to be using the WEC as a farm system. I wouldn't be surprised if they did end up on Spike, it would be a great business move to have a weekly "show" on Spike. Then build up fighters, who will take their fans to the UFC with them and sell more PPV's. HBO is only going to air 3 UFC cards in 2007 at MIDNIGHT and apparently they are really resisting moving to MMA because it isn't as "good" as boxing. HBO Source
Yeh they believe having MMA on HBO discredits their boxing legacy somehow! However ZUFFA have said they don't plan to use the WEC as a farming system they want to build it up to be on the same level as the UFC and surely the best way of doing this is including the lower weight class' that the UFC don't have.
Possible, but I doubt it will be anytime soon. The UFC hopefully will use the WEC as a farm system, it would be great both as a fan and business-wise to have a weekly show with 3-4 live fights.
