Zuffa is the parent company of the UFC (Ultimate Fighting Championship) as well as the WEC (World Extreme Cagefighting). In 2008, Zuffa’s flagship promotion, the UFC, held twelve pay-per-view events. The cost of the pay-per-view is approximately $50. If you are a die-hard UFC fan and order every single event, that is a minimum $600 a year you will spend viewing your favorite sport.
The UFC’s sister promotion, the WEC, began airing its live events on the VERSUS cable channel in June 2007 and that has been their home ever since. Exactly two years later, in June of 2009, the WEC is expected to move its programming to pay-per-view according to owner, Lorenzo Fertitta. The cost of the WEC pay-per-view has not been released.
The major difference between Zuffa’s two MMA promotions are the weight classes. The UFC has five weight classes: lightweight, middleweight, welterweight, light heavyweight, and heavyweight. The WEC has four weight classes: lightweight, featherweight, bantamweight, and flyweight.
The obvious question is, with MMA (UFC) fans already purchasing at least one pay-per-view per month, how many people really want to shell out another $30-$50 bucks a month for the WEC pay-per-views, especially after they have been getting it free for the past two years on the VERSUS channel?
Zuffa owners, Frank Fertitta III, Lorenzo Fertitta, and Dana White are well known for their great business sense and are among the most successful businessmen in the world, but one has to wonder what they are thinking with moving the WEC to pay-per-view.
Obviously Zuffa would not do something like this without a lot of research, so hopefully they have some changes to the roster and WEC business model coming which will make a move to pay-per-view more sensible than it now appears. We can give them the benefit of the doubt. There is no question, they have certainly earned that.
Stay tuned to PRO MMA (promma.info) as more information is released concerning the WEC’s move to pay-per-view and visit us daily for all your UFC, WEC, and MMA news.
By: Jack J. Bratcher