History of the WEC
Now in their 9th year, WEC – a blend of mixed martial arts and smart entrepreneurs – tries to be separate from the big boys at UFC by promoting their own fighters, but at the end of the day it’s still Dana White and Zuffa that owns this brand, and Dana White that decides on its direction.
Scott Adams and Reed Harris formed the World Extreme Cagefighting organization in 2001, holding most of their bouts in Lemoore, California and broadcast on HDNet until the group was purchased by Zuffa in 2006.
Adams and Harris got to stay with the WEC in their new roles as co-General Managers, and the WEC was still able to promote their stable of champions separate from those in the UFC. But Zuffa was quick to make changes to this newly purchased competitor.
WEC And Zuffa
Zuffa scrapped WEC’s pentagon cage and discarded the heavyweight and superheavyweight divisions, replacing them with a smaller version of the UFC’s Octagon and focused on the bantamweight and featherweight divisions to ensure that all weight classes were able to be found in a Zuffa event. Zuffa even held WEC events in Las Vegas, the ultimate honor from the company that was born Vegas.
In late 2008 WEC announced that they were getting rid of the light heavyweight and middleweight divisions of their roster, allowing them the time to focus on the lighter weight classes, and in 2009, their newly created Flyweight division.
Earlier this year, WEC announced that AMP Energy drink would be the official energy drink of the WEC, sponsoring the WEC’s best fighters: Urijah Faber, Chad Mendes, and Joseph Benavidez. With new sponsorship, and new fighters like Deividas Taurosevicius, WEC events are going to be tasty and entertaining.
If you'd like to bet on the next big WEC fight, I recommend checking out my guide to MMA betting
– Justin
MMA Odds.com Writer
Other articles you might like…
