Dana White announced yesterday that Ultimate Fighting Championship will now have Bantamweight and Featherweight divisions after World Extreme Cagefighting was folded into the UFC.
The addition of the former WEC into the UFC will now allow for championship fights on every pay-per-view. Furthermore it deepens the amount of fighters in the UFC stable. White estimated that UFC had “200-250” fighters under contract before adding “another 70.”
“No more WEC. Those weight classes will roll into UFC. It’s time. As we continue to grow globally,” White said. He noted that the UFC targeted Mexico and China as countries that the company’s brand could potential grow. “All of these weight classes should be in the UFC. Now is the time.
“It’s awesome,” White added about the formation of the two new divisions. “Our goal is to have every weight class. (We) want to add the 125 pound weight class.” He said he had “no clue” when the 125 pound weight class would be created, then shot down questions about a super heavyweight and women’s division. “That isn’t going to happen anytime soon,” White said about a prospective women’s division. “(There are) not enough good women (to form a division).”
Jose Aldo will be the first of the new fighters to fight in the UFC. Aldo, the WEC featherweight champion, will fight a too-be-determined opponent at UFC 125 on New Year’s Day at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas.
WEC Champion Ben Henderson will fight Anthony Pettis before the end of the year. The winner of that fight will fight the winner of Frankie Edgar-Gray Maynard “to unify the belts” in 2011. Edgar is the UFC Lightweight Champion.
White was effusive in his praise for the quality of WEC fights and WEC fighters overall, especially Jose Aldo, who he called “top three, pound-for-pound, in the word.”
“Any of them could. Jose Aldo could be a huge star. What’s exciting for the lighterweight guys is that they’re on the biggest stage,” White said. “More 155’s that people know and care about is exciting.
“The fights in the lighterweight division have always been exciting. We always wanted to do this.”
White also announced that the UFC and Versus reached an agreement on a deal that would allow the cable outlet to broadcast four fights. When asked if there could be a season of The Ultimate Fighter reality show built around the creation of new bantamweight and featherweight fighters, coached by UFC fighters in those divisions, White said that could happen soon” and “that could happen.” He did note that the company had “maxed out” the number of pay-per-views “we can do.” The UFC President said that the company had complete control of the WEC video and DVD library and “will be using our WEC library. There are a million things we can do with our library.”
