Quote:
Originally Posted by sonnysaggese
Is the Wec supposed to be to UFC what the Triple A is to Major League Baseball? IF that is the case then why do so few fighters move up to UFC? Also I don't understand why a fighter that loses on TUF gets to be in the UFC. Why not the WEC? It makes very little sense to me, this whole set up. Perhaps it is a work in process, but right now it just seems very unfair. I love TUF. It's a great show, and there are always a few fighters on the show that are UFC worthy. What about the WEC though? Isn't a champion in the WEC a better fighter then a TUF winner, or runner up, or third place? Shouldn't they graduate to the UFC? Maybe two or three defenses of a championship in the WEC should graduate a fighter to the UFC.
Any thoughts?
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It's not the UFC's "farm league" according to Dana, but IMO it SHOULD be. The UFC should REALLY be taking the majority of the non-winning TUF kids (and UFC veterans who haven't done well) and farming them out to the WEC. Signing a contract to be on a reality TV game show shouldn't guarantee you a gig in the UFC; you should have to win the damn "prize." From what I saw on VS the other night, most of the TUF vets would be competitive there, if not wildly successful. I'm not knocking guys like Urijah Faber -- he's
clearly legit -- but TUF doesn't do the "mini" weight divisions, so he's sort of beside the point.
I think Zuffa is basically using the WEC to showcase the 135 and 145 divisions, so that they will never have to add those divisions to the UFC, and using TUF to
create new "names" rather than allow them to develop organically like they used to. By the same token, the WEC has no heavyweight division at all, and their 205 weight class looked a bit amateurish to me. (Who here thinks Doug Marshall wouldn't get raped in the UFC?) In that sense, the UFC is a "big" org and the WEC is a "little" org, but Dana seems to treat them as two completely seperate entities, and unfortunately I think they'll stay that way.
