Damon Martin of MMAWeekly reports on some of the planning that may take place regarding a Faber-Aldo headline for the WEC’s first PPV card.
“I would think that as we move towards that, that would be a great pay-per-view,” Harris said when talking about Aldo vs. Faber. “I think the fans would pay to see that fight.”
The promotion has long talked about making the move, but 2010 has been guaranteed by several prominent figures in the WEC as the year pay-per-view becomes a reality. Still, Harris believes they have to make sure the whole card isn’t based on one fight. He wants to deliver a solid card from top to bottom, something WEC is garnering a strong reputation for.
“The other thing we have to look at though is we need to do more than one good fight on that card,” Harris commented. “We want to put together a card where people are basically saying they cannot miss it.”
He also didn’t rule out the possibility of putting Ben Henderson on that card as well defending his title against Donald “Cowboy” Cerrone, after their first fight gained notoriety as a candidate for Fight of the Year in 2009.
Payout Perspective:
Faber is without a doubt the WEC’s strongest draw, and Jose Aldo is probably the organization’s most exciting fighter. The potential for Faber-Aldo is quite substantial – so much so that the WEC could, with the proper marketing and lead-time, anchor a PPV event to this headline and attempt to kick start their own PPV series similar to the UFC.
However, the card will definitely need a strong co-main event in order to entice fans to pony-up for the WEC’s first PPV. Henderson-Cerrone II is a thought, but a potential Bowles-Torres rematch is no less intriguing. Although, it’s tough for the WEC to look that far ahead when both Bowles and Torres still have up-coming bouts against other opponents to worry about.
Really, one could make a case for either bout: Henderson-Cerrone II could work, because the last fight was a barn burner and that should be enough for the Zuffa hype machine to work with in terms of drawing a casual viewing audience. Bowles-Torres II is also a reasonable choice – should the pieces fall into place – because they are two of the world’s best bantamweights (something that cannot be said for either Henderson or Cerrone at 155). If the WEC really wants to showcase that it has the best fighters in the world at 135 and 145, putting Bowles-Torres on the PPV would provide an opportunity for them to signal that quality to the fans. Torres was, up until his loss to Bowles, widely considered one of the top five pound-for-pound fighters in the world – how do you not throw him on the PPV?
The problem with this is that they won’t have any headliners ready for about 3 months. Is stacking up the card worth it even though you sacrifice the quality of your next couple events?
I think at some point you have to take a shot if you’re the WEC.
You’re right in the sense that it’s a lot to throw onto one show, but they’ve got to make this kind of investment in order for the PPV to be successful. Fans have been getting single fights like Faber-Pulver and Faber-Brown for free on Versus for years, so where is the incentive to buy a PPV if they’re just offering something run-of-the-mill?
The reward is potentially there, but is the WEC willing to take the risk?
Worth the risk, nothing to lose. Consider they grossed 500K ticket sales for the last event with over 250K payout, include in undisclosed pay, taxes, cost to put on the event, they would be breaking even. If it was on PPV and they sold 40K buys, that’s an extra 500K potentially in revenue. In any case I think the WEC will definitely fold into UFC by end of year.
I think the WEC needs to stay where it is. I just don’t see the PPV route going anywhere, even though chances are it would be a two or three times a year thing. Unless they think 25K to maybe 50K in PPV’s is good business then I guess give it a try. But from Zuffa stand point that might also take some PPV buys that month away from the UFC brand. So does it really make good business in the end?
I just don’t see a merge working. The UFC doesn’t have the events or space on the current events to fit in the other weight divisions. It’s just too much. People just look at it from the cream of the crop stand point. They don’t look that there is about 40+ fighters in those divisions.
Zuffa just needs to use the UFC brand to promote the WEC more. You could throw Torres or Faber or Aldo fight on a UFC PPV or UFN to get more people to notice the WEC. I even won’t mind seeing a name change to something like the UFC Lite. Get the ratings up and when the TV contract comes due they can shop it around for a much more lucrative deal.