WEC's First PPV Possibly In June

The long-rumored PPV debut of WEC appears to be getting closer. Although some contractual hurdles must first be cleared, it seems like it'll happen in June in Sacramento, CA, and be headlined by the rematch of WEC Featherweight Champion Mike Brown vs. Urijah Faber for the title, assuming WEC can re-sign soon-to-be-free-agent Faber, which is expected soon.

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Does anyone else think this is not a good idea? I love the WEC but I don't think they will get anything better than Afflictionesque numbers. If Zuffa wants to get the little guys some ppv exposure they should piggy-back them onto a UFC... or better yet, just make the 145,135, and 125lb. divisions part of the UFC.

There should be a way where it all could be called UFC and still do shows on SPIKE and VS. As good as Zuffa is at making sure they have a good deal in a contract, you'd think that they wouldn't eff themselves like that.

I'm skeptical that the WEC can assemble a card that I'll pay for.

I dont think WEC is going to have good success with PPV. Also if they are still going to keep the WEC PPV events on a sunday.


Dont want this to happen.

There are only a few cards the WEC could put together that I'd pay for...

two off the top of my head are Urijah vs Torres and Urijah vs Kid (If they end up getting him)

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Posted by ncordless
or better yet, just make the 145,135, and 125lb. divisions part of the UFC.

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They can't do this. That would make it damn near impossible for fighters to get to fight as often as they want because there would be too many weightclasses.

Not going to happen anyway, this is why there's WEC-to spotlight the smaller guys and develop the Lightweights. We all knew this (PPV) was coming this year and really it's a good fight to start with-WEC does have MIguel Torres but Faber is still the promotion's poster boy and this would guarantee a full house for the show.

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Posted by DCRage

Not going to happen anyway, this is why there's WEC-to spotlight the smaller guys and develop the Lightweights. We all knew this (PPV) was coming this year and really it's a good fight to start with-WEC does have MIguel Torres but Faber is still the promotion's poster boy and this would guarantee a full house for the show.

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I think they could by just having more shows, especially more fight nights, on spike and VS, one every other 1 or 2 weeks and it gives them more titles to have title fights with not to mention if they create a cruiser weight div between LHW and HW like they should.. keep most of the major draws, title fights, and other major title contender fights on PPV , seems like a good business model to me
OK all you business grads poke your holes in it

I really dont think this is a good idea! I like the WEC, great fighters, great action fights. BUT even if the WEC would stack therirvery first PPV event to the sky with all the best fights possible, i dont think that they could do a follow up card or cards that would garner the interst of fans to pay $$$ too see them especially after we wera all used to getting them free. They do not have ENOUGH big names to keep putting on quality cards that people will pay to watch them on the tube!

The only fight i would consider to pay for would be Urijah vs Kid. After that, i wouldnt shell out any dought to watch any other WEC fight.

i would also be skeptical of this, they would need to sign some fighters for sure
and have all titles on the line
could have brown against faber but -i pass on that it just kinda happened and yeah i think it would serve them better to have 2 seperate fights out of them 2 guys.
brown against ??
faber against - maybe aldo or fabiano or new talent-yamamoto?
aldo against garcia

torres could fight damacio page but there could be someone else out there

and who should varner fight?-I love this guy, one of my favorites but he's not doing so hot in the ufc, I'm thinking sam stout against varner for the title

even then???

if they were saying 19.95 i think it would be a good shot to do well. but at 39.95 i think dana has lost his mind abit on it. they may try and send over some 155 ufc guys to help promote it and use them on card but i dont expect it to suceed

I know it sounds nuts but if they want to build the WEC they need to move the LW to WEC from the established UFC. Would you pay for WEC if BJ penn were fighting Ken Flo and Faber were fighting Brown? Not gonna happen, but I'm just saying, having 2 LW classes is dumb. But they can't take another division away from WEC. They could move LW and ad a Supper Heavy (250 and up) to the UFC. Or maybe a Super middle wieght (195).

youtube here I come.

The only way i see WEC working on PPV is if they bring in Carano.

Urijah Faber is their biggest draw and i don't think WEC is gonna sell a massive amount of tickets with him headlining. Also, he can't fight on every show.....

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Posted by Focker101

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Posted by DCRage

Not going to happen anyway, this is why there's WEC-to spotlight the smaller guys and develop the Lightweights. We all knew this (PPV) was coming this year and really it's a good fight to start with-WEC does have MIguel Torres but Faber is still the promotion's poster boy and this would guarantee a full house for the show.

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I think they could by just having more shows, especially more fight nights, on spike and VS, one every other 1 or 2 weeks and it gives them more titles to have title fights with not to mention if they create a cruiser weight div between LHW and HW like they should.. keep most of the major draws, title fights, and other major title contender fights on PPV , seems like a good business model to me
OK all you business grads poke your holes in it

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The PPV thing probably isn't going to happen all the time, the Versus deal is still in effect. Of course it didn't help that they couldn't get Carano & Cris Cyborg (Strikeforce), that would've been a big boost. For right now I imagine they would build PPVs, when they do them, around Faber & Torres.

I don't think the numbers they're getting on the Versus Network (1-2 million viewers) indicate that the WEC has any chance of success in a PPV format. On the other hand when is the last time Zuffa has made a really poor business desicion? I think Zuffa likes to throw out these little breadcrumbs, and then watch the mayhem on the message boards to see what kind of interest is out there.

I think they're overvaluing Faber's star power. He's certainly WEC's biggest star, but I'm not sure that's saying much at this point. The only way I could see a PPV success happening is some type of co-promoted event with the UFC, but it's hard to envision the UFC mixing two products.

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Posted by Wolfenstein

I don't think the numbers they're getting on the Versus Network (1-2 million viewers) indicate that the WEC has any chance of success in a PPV format.

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I wonder if WEC's contract with Vs. is exclusive. A show or three on Spike! might be better for WEC than a pay-per-view.

i would never pay for a wec pay per view no matter how good the card is
they need to stick to vs or even go main stream like abc or nbc

I don't know how much success they will have on PPV. They would have to put all of their top names on a card in order for it to be worth my money.

I don't want this to happen, I mean WEC brings alot of good fights and finishes to the table but I don't think they should move to PPV.

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Posted by Wolf

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Posted by ncordless
or better yet, just make the 145,135, and 125lb. divisions part of the UFC.

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They can't do this. That would make it damn near impossible for fighters to get to fight as often as they want because there would be too many weightclasses.

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Yeah I thought the "bring more weight classes to the UFC" thing was over.

I hope this dosn't happen but I wouldn't have a problem with them having their title fights on UFC PPVs. I also think they shouldn't let the 155 champ last too long win a few times then bring him to the big leagues.

Listen, Zuffa- I'm one of the biggest WEC fans out there. I'm a huge fan of the WEC, but moving to paper view is not going to help the WEC. In fact, it's going to hurt the WEC. Even as big of a fan of the WEC as I am, I'm still not going to order it. Nor is anyone that I know.

The economy is terrible right now. People don't have the money to pay for this stuff. WEC doesn't draw enough even if the economy was good. It's just not going to work

It might not happen in June now, at least according to Urijah Faber.

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He makes a couple good points. And one more thing briefly touched on near the end-regardless of what happens, one of these two (Faber or Brown) should fight Jose Aldo next. Aldo is The Real Deal.

that Aldo is next in line