Coming out of this weekend’s solid and entertaining WEC show, the big talk once again revolved around the company’s flagship Featherweight division. Since gaining a higher profile through Versus and the Zuffa purchase, the Featherweights, and particularly former FW kingpin Urijah Faber, have been the focus of the company. As a result, Faber has been the biggest ratings draw for the company – the first Faber v. Pulver fight last year drew a record 1.4 rating, while the rematch this January drew a 0.65 – a significant drop, but still the second highest rated Versus event in WEC history. So it should be no surprise that at the end of the show the talk was not about up and comer Jose Aldo or even truly about new FW champ Mike Brown himself. The talk was, once again, about Urijah Faber and his pending rematch with Brown.
While there has been some question if Faber deserves such a quick rematch, this is a move that perfectly captures WEC’s matchmaking style. And it’s a style that their parent company could learn something from.
