WEC Going to Pay Per View

[Turd Ferguson]

As expected World Extreme Cagefighting is headed to pay-per-view.

The organization today announced via the AP that WEC 48, which retails for $44.99, takes place Saturday, April 24, at ARCO Arena in Sacramento, Calif.

Featured bouts include WEC featherweight champ Jose Aldo vs. Urijah Faber, lightweight champion Benson Henderson vs. Donald Cerrone, and former champ Mike Brown vs. Manny Gamburyan.

The WEC, which traditionally airs on Versus, has never previously aired a show on PPV. The WEC PPV fee is the same as charged by its sister promotion, the Ultimate Fighting Championship.

MMAjunkie.com (www.mmajunkie.com) reported last month that Faber's WEC 46 victory over Raphael Assuncao had earned him the title shot with Aldo and that it likely would take place at WEC 48.

Aldo (16-1 MMA, 6-0 WEC), who owns nine straight wins and is 6-0 (with six TKO wins) in the WEC, earned the title with a WEC 44 main-event win over then-champ Brown. The Brazilian Nova Uniao fighter makes his first title defense when he meets Faber (23-3, 8-2 WEC), who again fights in front of a hometown crowd. Faber lost his belt and a subsequent rematch with Brown. He's 2-1 over his past three fights, which included the second loss to Brown and submission wins over Jens Pulver and Assuncao.

Soon after confirming the bout last month, WEC General Manager Reed Harris hinted that it could headline the WEC's PPV debut.

"I would think that as we move toward pay-per-view, [Aldo vs. Faber] would be a great pay-per-view," Harris said. "I think the fans would pay to see that fight."

Henderson (11-1 MMA, 4-0 WEC), meanwhile, also makes his first title defense. The well-rounded fighter defeated Cerrone via decision for the interim title in October at WEC 43 and then unified the belts with a submission victory over then-champ Jamie Varner at WEC 46. He puts his 10-fight win streak on the line when he rematches Cerrone (14-2 MMA, 4-2 WEC), who rebounded from the initial loss to Henderson with a third-round submission victory over Ed Ratcliff in the WEC 45 main event in December.

Brown (23-5 MMA, 5-1 WEC) and Gamburyan (10-4 MMA, 2-0 WEC), meanwhile, are likely fighting for a chance to meet the winner of WEC 48's main event. After losing his belt to Aldo, Brown submitted Anthony Morrison last month at WEC 46 to pick up his 11th win in his past 12 fights. Gamburyan, a former UFC fighter and lightweight runner-up on "The Ultimate Fighter 5," made his WEC debut in 2009 and dropped a weight class. He has since posted decision wins over John Franchi and Leonard Garcia to enter featherweight title contention.

For the latest on WEC 48, stay tuned to the MMA Rumors section of MMAjunkie.com.

I'm not sure if this is a good move. The WEC doesn't have the greatest exposure to begin with, I think their last card only got about 650,000 viewers on Versus. They don't have an outlet with Direct TV, which a lot of people use as their television carrier. The price itself is very steep, and a lot of people are going to be stuck choosing between the UFC and WEC. The UFC is running some great cards in the coming months. I'm sure a lot of UFC fans are casual fans as well, and don't really know about what the WEC has to offer. With a $44.99 price tag, it's hard to justify putting the card on PPV. Don't get me wrong, the WEC puts on some great shows that usually are worthy of PPV, but with a lot less exposure, they need to make the cards cheaper. A lot of people would buy the card if it were $19.99 or even $24.99.

Jose Aldo and Urijah Faber are the two best fighters the WEC has to offer, and their fight should be a classic. I think Aldo is a top 10 Pound for Pound, and was last year's Fighter of the Year. However, to casual MMA fans, they are not household names. Some casual fans may be aware of who Faber is, but they probably haven't ever seen him fight, and aren't going to spend the $45 to check him out. Benson Henderson and Donald Cerrone are even less well-known, and again, where some casuals may be aware of who Mike Brown is, he's fighting Manny Gamburyan, and he's best known for being a Lightweight can in the UFC.

I think that the UFC should have realized that the best way to get fans to pay for the WEC, as well as really promote it to casual fans, was to throw Aldo/Faber on the main card of an upcoming UFC event. They could have done the same thing for Henderson/Cerrone II. Then, with more exposure for the WEC, they could have started rolling out PPVs at discounted prices.

Even Affliction didn't try to charge as much as the UFC did for their PPVs. I really want the WEC to succeed, because there are so many talented fighters who deserve to get paid what they are worth. But, charging people $45 for a card that normally would have been free isn't the right away to start winning over fans.