By FCF Staff In a move that many long time observers of the sport thought inevitably would come, Zuffa has announced today that its World Extreme Cagefighting promotion will be incorporated into the much larger Ultimate Fighting Championship. The upcoming November 11th and December 16th WEC cards will be the promotion's last.(Pictured left: former WEC featherweight champ Urijah Faber)
“As the UFC continues to evolve and grow globally, we want to be able to give fans title fights in every weight division,” UFC President Dana White was quoted saying. “This is a big day for the sport and the athletes who will have the opportunity to fight on the biggest stage in the world.”
According to today’s announcement, the UFC will begin promoting a featherweight and bantamweight division, and respective WEC champions Jose Aldo and Dominick Cruz will keep their titles (however as UFC champions).
The winner of the upcoming, December 16th, lightweight bout between WEC Lightweight Champion Ben Henderson and challenger Anthony Pettis, will then face the winner of the January 1st, bout between UFC lightweight champ Frankie Edgar and Gray Maynard. The unifying bout will take place sometime later in 2011.
The aforementioned Aldo will reportedly defend his UFC Featherweight Championship at UFC 125 on January 1st; however, no opponent has yet been determined.
In terms of the television deal the WEC had with Versus, the cable network will now broadcast four UFC events annually instead of two, which is an overall decrease in Zuffa broadcasts on the network. The final two WEC cards will air on Versus as usual.
