UFC president promises bigger paydays for WEC fighters at “Aldo vs. Faber

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Steven Marrocco, MMAjunkie.com
8 hours, 18 minutes ago

Buzz up! 0 PrintUFC president Dana White says bigger paydays are on the way for WEC fighters, at least for the time being.

On Saturday, the UFC's sister organization asks fans to pony up $44.95 for WEC 48 at the ARCO Arena in Sacramento, Calif. the same price as a UFC pay-per-view card. For the past three years, the WEC has been broadcast on Versus, its cable television partner since Zuffa, LLC purchased the promotion in 2007.

Many observers have noted a disparity in pay between WEC fighters and UFC fighters. However, White said that gap will narrow Saturday at least temporarily as the WEC moves from the smaller money in cable television to the dynamic and potentially lucrative world of pay-per-view.

Although White implied WEC headliners won't share pay-per-view profits like their UFC counterparts, he promised a bump in overall pay.

"What we do in these situations, we have a better grasp of what's going to happen in a UFC pay-per-view," he told MMAjunkie.com (www.mmajunkie.com) today. "We can actually almost nail the number on what we think we're going to do.

"This is our first time doing this, so we don't know how this is going to do. But yeah, the WEC fighters on this card will make more money than they've ever made before."

Until now, the WEC has generated revenue through ticket sales, which are priced lower than UFC events, in addition to licensing deals with Versus and promotional sponsorships.

The UFC's primary revenue stream is pay-per-view sales, which in 2009 generated an estimated $349 million in revenue for Zuffa, LLC, in addition to licensing deals with cable TV partner Spike TV, DVD sales, merchandise and other streams.

Former WEC featherweight champion Urijah Faber, who faces current champion Jose Aldo in the main event of WEC 48, appears to have a lot invested on the move to pay-per-view as a Sacramento-area native and hometown hero.

For his part, Faber hopes Saturday night will prove the lighter-weighted organization is a viable pay-per-view product, which would ensure bigger paydays in the future.

"I'm just having faith that I've been a great employee and put my heart and soul into everything I do," he said. "I think the model of pay-per-view is what has allowed the sport of mixed martial arts to grow, and I'm thinking I want to prove I can make some money, and hopefully get some return.

"I feel like everyone on the card will benefit if the card does well. I know that selling out the ARCO Arena is big, and having people be interested in the fight is big, and this is what I've been working towards, is to prove I can make some money and hopefully get some in return."

White said it would be "terrible" if Saturday's pay-per-view buy rate did not double the numbers of April 3's boxing match between Bernard Hopkins and Roy Jones, Jr., which reportedly drew 90,000 buys.

The UFC president felt confident that the promotion's three years on cable TV has established a fan base who will buy the event.

"There's an evolution," White said. "When we started the WEC, you build a fan base on television, you get these guys some exposure, people know them, and then you make the leap to pay-per-view and hopefully it works out.

"I believe we've done all the right things up to this point to take a stacked card like this with a great main event and co-main event … and hopefully take the lighter-weight guys to the next level."

However, White said the road to pay-per-view is paved with risk, a fact borne out by numerous competitors who've gone under after a few events, not to mention his own promotion prior to its groundbreaking success with the Spike TV-televised "The Ultimate Fighter."

"Everybody needs to make more money … everybody wants to make more money," White said. "It's human nature. But we know how to do it; we do it the right way.

"We're not going to blow our brains out."

Why is WEC seperated from the UFC?

I'm not sure why exactly, but some reasons that come to mind could be:

1) Taxation purposes
2) 2 businesses mean that the WEC can be used to experiment with certain things the UFC might want to get involved in (i.e. partnering with Versus)
3) Seperate weight classes and shows so the UFC's schedule doesn't get too hectic and produce events every 2 weeks

Dana White is calling this fight the biggest in Feather Weight history. To me, you would want the biggest Feather Weight fight in history to be fought under the flag of the biggest MMA promotion in the world. Anyway, I did not know much about these guys till I started watching some of their fights and I would actually like to see this fight. I won't shell out $48 for, but, I would really like to see it.

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Anyways, I think they're always going to market title fights like "this is the biggest to date". To me, the biggest one was Faber/Brown I.