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In the last year or so, the UFC has begun to cut through the WEC weight classes by bringing the WEC talent over to the UFC. The WEC Heavyweight, WEC Light Heavyweight, WEC Middleweight and WEC Welterweight Divisions have all been abolished within the last year. More recently, the WEC Welterweight Division was abolished and WEC Welterweight Champion Carlos Condit will headline UFC Ultimate Fight Night 18 in April.
The only division that remains untouched by the UFC thus far is the WEC Lightweight Division, that is championed by UFC veteran Jamie Varner.
That leads to my topic for this column, should the UFC abolish the WEC Lightweight Division?
The WEC Lightweight Division has a ton of talented fighters like WEC Lightweight Champion Jamie Varner, Rob McCullough, Marcus Hicks, Donald Cerrone and Ed Ratcliff. The UFC, for example, already has fighters like BJ Penn, Sean Sherk, Frankie Edgar, Kenny Florian, Gray Maynard, Tyson Griffin and Nate Diaz already in the UFC Lightweight Division.
To merge those divisions together though, would definitely make for a talent rich division that is already considered one of the best in the UFC. However, some of the fighters currently in the WEC Lightweight Division, weren’t even put in a prominent position in the UFC. Take for example, current WEC Lightweight Champion Jamie Varner, who fought twice before in the UFC at UFC 62 and UFC 68.
At UFC 62: Liddell vs. Sobral, Jamie Varner fought in the opening bout of the pay-per-view broadcast against top contender Hermes Franca, losing to him via submission. At UFC 68: Uprising, Jamie Varner fought on the preliminary card against Jason Gilliam, defeating him by submission. After UFC 68, Jamie Varner moved to the WEC, where he is on a four fight win streak and the current WEC Lightweight Champion.
My biggest concern with a possible merger of the UFC and WEC Lightweight Divisions is that the WEC fighters will take up positions in the preliminary card and not given the same opportunities as the current UFC Lightweight fighters are in. Also, take for example, that Carlos Condit is the only former WEC fighter given much of a hype for entering the promotion.
I’m not suggesting that the WEC fighters shouldn’t have to earn there way up the cards, but if your not a hardcore MMA fan, you would never know which fighters now in the UFC came over from the WEC, which is something significant. In the last year, fighters like Steve Cantwell, Brian Stann, Chael Sonnen, Brock Larson and Mark Munoz have all entered the UFC from the WEC with little fanfare.
The WEC may not be hurt as bad by the possible abolishment of the WEC Lightweight Division as one may think, because there is going to be more lighter weight divisions being added to the promotion. There are possible divisions like a flyweight division and super flyweight division being added to the promotion within a year or so.
In the end, the WEC Lightweight Division will eventually be abolished by the UFC and all the top fighters will go to the UFC Lightweight Division. Which, in the long run, could possibly mean a lot more talented fighters in an already talented division, but could also lead to an over saturation of the possible top division currently in the UFC.
You can contact David Tees at bigtees360@yahoo.com
You can send questions for MMA Q&A at pwimmaquestions@yahoo.com
