Dave Meltzer of Yahoo! Sports talks about what makes Urijah Faber such a valuable asset for the WEC in the wake of his contenders bout with Raphael Assuncao at WEC 46 on Sunday.
Big matches aren’t unfamiliar territory for Faber, who held the title for two years and eight months before losing it in an upset at the end of 2008 to Brown in their first meeting.
Faber’s big fights of the past two years – a 2008 match with Jens Pulver and June’s featherweight title rematch with Brown – were the two biggest money fights in WEC history. He retained his title by winning a decision over Pulver in the former. In the latter, Faber lost a decision in a match high on most lists as match of the year in a match where Faber injured both his hands, which had been sore for a long time coming off the Pulver fight.
The Pulver match drew 1.6 million viewers and the Brown fight on June 7 drew 1.3 million. Those numbers on Versus are even more impressive when you consider that no fight without Faber has done more than 700,000 viewers, and the most recent WEC show on Dec. 19 (featuring Donald Cerrone vs. Ed Ratcliffe) did 333,000.
Faber has the home-court advantage of fighting at Arco, the same site as the first Pulver and second Brown fights. Both events drew in excess of 12,000 fans, easily the two biggest numbers in WEC history, and numbers rarely reached in North American MMA without a UFC banner attached. While Faber doesn’t have the same general-public name recognition of the biggest UFC fighters, among MMA fans Faber gets cheered as loudly as Georges St. Pierre and Chuck Liddell – who get the strongest crowd reactions in the sport.
“Every sport has its stars that shine above the others,” noted Marc Fein, Versus’ executive vice president. “When Faber fights, ratings tend to be up. We’d love to be able to get other fighters to that level. … In every sport – basketball, golf – you have the guys that the public wants to watch.”
Faber’s popularity is the result of a combination of factors. He’s got a look that stands out in a crowd, and his personality comes across well, giving the vibe of a cool California surfer type. He’s worked tirelessly with WEC over the past three years in promoting himself and the brand. All that work can get you to a certain level of popularity, but to stay at the top you have to win fights. Faber has been able to deliver not only wins but memorable fights as well.
Payout Perspective:
Perhaps one of the greater challenges of working in sports business is the absence of ultimate control over your product. The WEC cannot control what happens in the cage on Sunday night between Faber and Assuncao – it can only hope to plan and react.
With that said, a Faber victory on Sunday makes life for Reed Harris and Peter Dropick a lot easier. Faber has been a remarkable draw for the WEC, and the feeling is that if the WEC is to pursue a PPV event this year it would likely involve him. The current speculation is that should Faber win, he’ll earn a date with current WEC featherweight champion Jose Aldo this summer. That would be about as good an opportunity as any for the WEC to launch a PPV, and in either scenario they’re likely to come out with a star fighter.
Something to chew on as we head into this weekend: WEC 46 on Sunday and UFN 21 on Monday.
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