WEC 47: What We Learned, and What’s Next
Posted by Jacob Lawton on March 13th, 2010
Pictured: Dominick Cruz, who recorded the biggest win of his MMA career over Brian Bowles at WEC 47.
Last weekend’s WEC 47 promised the usual WEC formula, with their typical bouts of hyperactive fast action in the light weight classes.
And, it delivered — a quality event. Unable to watch it live due to living in the UK, over the last week I’ve been able to track down one fine WEC 47 bout after another.
Along the way, we appear to have reached turning points for the WEC: first, in the shakeup of the bantamweight division; second, my issues with the promotion’s coverage; and finally, something I’d call the “talent/charisma” crossroads…
Brian Bowles and Miguel Torres went into the fights last weekend expected to win to set up a money-spinning rematch in the growing bantamweight division. Instead, both men were upset by Dominick Cruz and Joseph Benavidez, respectively. The Benavidez win was most shocking for me. A fighter who has been considered ‘good but not great’ since his debut beat up Torres, who was 37-1 (!!!) up until he lost the title to Bowles last autumn. Not only that, but he was finished by a choke. This is not something we’ve come to expect from Torres, a consummate professional, and, until now, among everyone’s pound for pound top 10. Now on a two fight skid, there are people who are starting to doubt the skill of this competitor.
For me, this is wrong. There are stories of Torres taking on and beating men almost 100ibs heavier than him before the days of weight classes, and I think the decline we are seeing now could just be due to that great enemy, time. Jens Pulver, who I won’t dwell upon, appeared to call time on his career following a stoppage loss earlier that night, and you’ve got to feel that perhaps Torres is heading that way. Pulver has lost seven of his last eight — with only one making it to the judge’s scorecards. Torres, though nowhere near such dire straits yet, is definitely rattled. The guy is a shoo-in for any MMA hall of fame, but I feel he needs to sort himself out, take a deep breath, and try and recapture that old spark before he steps into the WEC cage again.
The other big upset was, of course, Brian Bowles bemusing loss to Urijah Faber pupil Dominick Cruz. Bowles pulled out of the fight following breaking his hand, and this leads me to question his heart. Case in point: Urijah Faber broke BOTH his hands while fighting Mike Thomas Brown for the WEC last year, and KEPT GOING. Though he lost via the scorecards, he made it to the final bell, and earned more respect from MMA’s fans, who often find themselves respecting fighters seemingly willing to hurt themselves instead of pulling out when the going gets tough. No disrespect to Cruz, who was dominating the fight with his jaunty in-out striking, but Bowles made it easy for Cruz to make the biggest win of his career. Many arguments have been bandied about for Bowles’ quitting, including monetary issues and him being a pansy, but I’m sure he has a valid reason for calling time. It’s just a shame that we were deprived of a great main event to cap a great night of fights.
Second we have what I’ve dubbed a coverage crossroads. As I’m sure you know, June’s WEC 48, headlined by Jose Aldo’s first defence of his Featherweight strap against Urijah Faber, is also WEC’s first pay per view. And the numbers following the latest Versus show were not great. The WEC lost half it’s viewer ship compared to January’s WEC 46. Hardcore MMA fans have been moaning about the exorbitant pricing of the inaugural PPV ($50), which also features Mike Thomas Brown scrapping on the undercard and Benson Henderson aiming to make his first proper defence of the WEC Lightweight belt against Donald Cerrone, a rematch of last autumn’s war that was definitely a fight of the year candidate. I can’t help but thinking that these fans are being a little small minded.
I’m assuming these same fans stump up the 50 bucks to watch UFC PPVs. The last two, in terms of name value and potential excitement, have been on a similar level to this upcoming WEC card. And WEC fights are so often break neck fast and exciting to watch that you can’t really argue with the same pricing as the UFC. The main problem with this is the fact that some combat sports fans are still of the deluded opinion that the heavier the better, so WEC, with it’s trio of light weight classes is going to be disregarded out of the gates… a crying shame for an event that has all the makings of a historic one.
During WEC’s Versus broadcast, Donald Cerrone and Urijah Faber both appeared and gave interviews, and it’s easy to see why. Both men are fan favourites — very much poster boys, with charisma to spare and jokes a plenty. The cameras love them. And I have no problem with the dynamic duo giving interviews, it just jars a little that the two men they’re fighting for belts soon weren’t present.
I personally like Benson Henderson; he strikes me as a nice guy, and Jose Aldo’s undeniable talent means that he at least should get some screen time talking through a translator. The WEC needs to decide which horse it’s going to back, and it’s a hard choice. It can continue its mainstream push and continue giving popular guys like Cerrone and Faber all the exposure, or it can give itself a feel of legitimacy by giving it’s champions the screen time. I don’t think they necessarily have to plunk for either wrong. Personally, I’ll be happy as long as Henderson and Aldo get some screen time as well as the pretty boys. But what about the PPV audience?
Time will tell. But WEC has proven to provide fights worth watching. Hopefully, that’s enough.
March 13th, 2010 at 1:16 pm
What came to mind watching this show and reading your idea of a “coverage crossroads” was something that may be a bigger problem with MMA today. Stephen Quadros’ described MMA’s evolution as possibly a bad thing a few years back — how we went from style vs style, and an assortment of characters, to now, with all the fighters seemingly fighting — and even dressing and acting — identically.
Javi’s jiu-jitsu clinic seemed the only break from the “wrestling base / ground-and-pound with a little Muay Thai to set it up” style.
WEC is almost completely strong bell-to-bell action like that, which is great for us, but I’m not sure it’s really a formula for success. I know I could use a little human interest angle here and there… some talk about the ringwalk music, anything.
Still, I enjoy these WEC shows a lot. I don’t think their PPV is going to do well at all and I don’t blame anyone for thinking it shouldn’t be a pay event. I couldn’t justify Couture/Coleman on PPV for that matter.
March 14th, 2010 at 1:09 pm
Yeah, I can agree with Quandros on that. It’s great for the hardcore fans, but for getting new fans into it all? Less good.
Stick to what works/and is exciting. Once again, hardcore fans love matwork, casuals… less so. WEC’s probably building it’s roster along those lines.
Commercials cut into the time Versus can take to build up it’s fighter’s personailty. Outside of Faber, Puler and sort of Cerrone, there’s no-one who really leaps out the screen and grabs my attention.