On April 24th, Jose Aldo and Urijah Faber will fight for the WEC featherweight title in a WEC cage on a WEC event. So why is Zuffa doing everything in their power to ignore the WEC brand?
Let’s start with the poster at right. The “UFC Presents…” adds credibility to the event, though it may come off as pretentious to some. Go back and check the last handful of UFC posters. Did you notice a pattern? The first thing you notice in each poster (and I went back to 108) is the UFC logo. The poster is designed with the logo as the focus. The “Aldo vs. Faber” poster, while adorned with the WEC stamp, gives equal attention to the marquee fighters’ names.
It’s a tenuous bit of evidence, but an interesting one.
But let’s add that to some other bits of interesting news. Reed Harris will not be the promoter for this event. That duty will belong to Dana White. Joe Rogan than announced that he and Mike Goldberg will call the fight in place of Todd Harris and Frank Mir/Stephan Bonnar.
It doesn’t end there. Neither “WEC” nor “World Extreme Cagefighting” appear in this press release announcing prelims being shown live on Spike before the pay-per-view. The most damning evidence? Check out this ad that’s an extended version of what’s been shown on Versus during the NHL playoffs:
The WEC name appears in this ad…in the copyright line buried at the bottom of the screen in the final moments of the ad.
This all seems like a rather odd strategy if Zuffa is serious about keeping the WEC around as a legitimate entity. It’s understandable that the company would want to put the “UFC Presents…” training wheels on the poster, but why has the WEC brand been scrubbed from nearly every other marketing outlet?
Zuffa might be worried about consumer confusion with a WEC promoted pay-per-view. But if that’s the case, why go through with a WEC pay-per-view in the first place? Especially when you’ve stripped the show of almost everything that would lead one to believe the WEC is in charge.
The public already views the WEC as the UFC’s minor league. Read an interview with a WEC star and you’ll see some answer about family, friends, and fans asking them, “Is that like the UFC?” There’s a very obvious solution on the table. Assimilate the top WEC talent into the UFC rotation, reinstate the entire scope of weight classes in the WEC, and use the WEC as a place to stick rising talent and aging veterans.
Guys like Jose Aldo and Urijah Faber could be big stars in this sport, but they’ll never reach their potential behind the WEC name.
UPDATE by Anton Tabuena – Bruce Buffer confirms on twitter that he will also be announcing for WEC 48:
I will be attending the Aldo vs. Faber fight show at Arco Arena next week… Will be an awesome night of action n excitement! …I will be announcing the show… Looking forward to roaring for Faber vs. Aldo!