In the midst of UFC 111 — WEC 48 looks to set a new stage

In a media roundtable this morning, Word Extreme Cagefighting General Manager Reed Harris, former 145 pound champ Mike Brown and matchmaker Sean Shelby threw some tidbits of info regarding their upcoming PayPerView- the Company’s first and a real watershed moment for the semiautonomous UFC sister-company.

 The WEC started concentrating itself down to the lighter weight classes eight months ago and has been putting on some pretty heavy shows building up to the April 24th event that will test if MMA fans consider WEC on par with PPV worthy promotions.

There was a lot of the standard pulling and pushing at the duality of WEC’s aspirations to ‘come out from under the UFC shadow’ and their realization that the future makes a lot more sense under the UFC umbrella. But one great clip came when Sean Shelby recounted how the Urijah Faber v Jose Aldo fight — the headliner for WEC 48 — came to fall in Faber’s hometown of Sacramento. 

“He came to us,” said Shelby of Aldo. According to Shelby the champ was animate about it: “I want to beat him in front of his home town crowd,” he told Shelby. 

Pretty wild stuff considering the talent of Faber — a guy who, with a broken hand, took Mike Brown the distance in their  WEC 41 war of attrition rematch (also in Sacramento).

Look out for more info as this event draws closer. The stakes couldn’t be higher, according to Reed Harris. “We have been moving to this moment since we started to focus on lightweight fights.” 

Brown — who is also on the stacked PPV card — was asked how eager he is to work his way back up to a rematch. He responded, surprisingly, that he has never been motivated much by rematches, which puts him at odds with many of the other top level fighters to measure the motivational value of revenge. 

“I have never been huge… on beating guys who I lost to,” he said.

Regardless of his particular motivation he is obviously wanting to get back into the number one slot. The fact that he is the third fight down speaks volumes about the depth of the PPV card. But can the WEC sustain this caliber of competition? This is key to maintaining the position they have dialed into their sights. 

Shelby thinks they can, and he affirmed that the WEC is The premier promotion of the lighter guys and they have their pick of the best. “Everyone else [outside the WEC],” he said, “is just a prospect”. His fight matrix, where he tracks fighters from around the country, is robust and well guarded. Shelby says that any fighter who has begun to distinguish themselves in their local market — anyone putting together 5-10 pro wins, with few or no loses- is on his radar.

And this will be the real factor in the success of the WEC beyond this initial PPV. If they do have the depth of talent to keep this pace up long term- game over. 

But the only person who knows the score is Shelby and he isn’t telling — anyone — as he was quick to answer my question of who has seen the spreadsheet where he tracks all potential prospects. “No one,” he answered without a second thought.