Jamie Varner
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With the WEC’s next event just around the corner, media coverage has started to ramp up this week. As it does, the one thing that becomes increasingly clear is that the organization’s top fighters are mostly just pissed off that they aren’t in the UFC. USA Today wrote about the UFC’s uncertain attitude regarding the future of the promotion, including a quote from Marc Ratner that reflects what seems to the consensus opinion over at Zuffa:
“There is talk about having the heavier guys come on over (to UFC), and maybe anything under 145 (pounds, the featherweight limit) would be WEC and above 145 would be UFC,” says UFC vice president Marc Ratner. “It hasn’t been put into place yet.”
In the same article, Carlos Condit describes the UFC as “the big show” and says he hopes to move on up. Jamie Varner made similar comments to Sherdog, saying:
“I still got all the doubters out there, and that’s motivation to me,” Varner said. “All the people out there saying this guy in the UFC would beat you or this guy in Dream would kill you. I want to beat everyone that Zuffa puts in front of me and hopefully one day get my opportunity to fight a B.J. Penn and show the world what I’m made of.”
Ordinarily it would be a bad thing to have all your top fighters publicly stating their desire to go and fight somewhere else, but this only reinforces how smart it was of Zuffa to purchase the WEC and use them as a sort of minor league, as well as how dumb it would be to turn it into nothing but featherweights and bantamweights.
What I like about the WEC is that Zuffa has them available for free on a small cable station (Versus), but they still put on great fights between quality competitors. It’s a given that no one wants to stick around, much like minor league baseball. And just as there’s a very different, but still very real pleasure to watching minor league baseball, the same can be said of the WEC.
That’s why it would be a shame to see them turn it into nothing more than their repository for the lighter weight classes. That just privileges the larger fighters who would get to go to the big time simply because of their weight — Brian Stann, for example — while ignoring supremely talented guys like Urijah Faber.
I’d really like to see Zuffa go all the way with the minor-league format for the WEC. Keep all the weight classes, bring at least the top featherweights to the UFC, and make it a little more equitable across the board. That way people will really know what to think of the WEC. Instead of it being home to really great featherweights and lower, along with heavier guys who aren’t ready for the UFC, it could be all guys who aren’t ready for the UFC.
Imagine how much more fun it would be to watch guys mature in the WEC and then get called up to the UFC for their big chance. Not to mention, it’s much easier to promote them when you already own footage of their previous fights.
While they’re at it, maybe add a wacky mascot and some special theme events like “nickel beer night.” Just saying. It couldn’t hurt (yes it could).
Written by admin on July 31st, 2008 with comments disabled.
Read more articles on Versus and Jamie Varner and Brian Stann and Marc Ratner and fight and Urijah Faber and Carlos Condit and UFC and WEC and Zuffa and Commentary and MMA.
WORLD EXTREME CAGEFIGHTING® ANNOUNCES CHAMPIONSHIP TRIPLEHEADER IN AUGUST
CARLOS CONDIT, BRIAN STANN, AND JAMIE VARNER ALL DEFEND THEIR CROWNS
SUNDAY, AUGUST 3, 2008
LIVE FROM THE HARD ROCK HOTEL & CASINO IN LAS VEGAS
Tickets On Sale Now
Las Vegas – The World Extreme Cagefighting® (WEC™) organization announced today that three world titles will be on the line when WEC [...]
Written by admin on June 4th, 2008 with comments disabled.
Read more articles on Jamie Varner and Brian Stann and Carlos Condit and WEC and UFC and MMA.
Newly crowned WEC Lightweight Champion, Jamie Varner (14-2), will return to defend his 155-pound belt for the first time ever against Marcus Hicks (8-0) on August 3, according to MMAWeekly.com.
It’s the second title fight slated for the show — WEC Light Heavyweight Champion Brian Stann is also expected to defend his 205-pound title against Steve Cantwell.
“The Worm” is fresh off an impressive knockout of then-WEC champion, “Razor” Rob McCullough, at WEC 32 back February, defeating the heavy-handed champion at his own game. It was his third straight win and second consecutive victory under the WEC banner.
Varner will certainly have to bring his “A” game — “The Wrecking Ball” is no slouch.
In fact, Hicks is one of the hottest (and most compact) fighters in the promotion, winning his last three fights in the WEC, and overall, is riding an eight fight win streak. He has defeated the likes of Ed Ratcliff and Sergio Gomez en route to being the number one contender in the division.
Put simply, the Brazilian jiu-jitsu black belt — who also has some pro boxing experience — will be a stiff challenge for Varner
Stay tuned for more fight announcements and other news in the next few days as WEC 34: “Faber vs Pulver” is set for this weekend — the organization will certainly look to promote upcoming events on the biggest night in its history.
Written by admin on May 28th, 2008 with comments disabled.
Read more articles on Marcus Hicks and Jamie Varner and World Extreme Cagefighting (WEC) and MMA.
For those who watched Jamie Varner upset “Razor” Rob McCullough last week at WEC: “Condit vs. Prater” to capture the WEC Lightweight title, you witnessed a rarity in mixed martial arts (MMA) competition.
During the early stages of the third round, Razor stepped up his game oh so briefly from his performance in the first two rounds and hit Varner with a solid punch, causing “The Worm” to lose his mouthpiece.
Varner immediately shot for the takedown, which resulted in McCullough taking the top position and trying to get in some ground and pound. Varner was able to get up from the ground and, in a surprising move, he called a timeout to get his mouthpiece.
Fighters are not allowed to request timeouts in MMA. Nonetheless, the ref took Varner’s cue and stopped the action.
The Worm’s corner washed out his mouthpiece before restarting the action. This delay in the action some say caused Varner to recoup. However, he sees it different as told to AdCombat.com.
Here’s the snip:
“The fact is that was the first break in the action. When Rob hit me, I went into survival mode and went for the takedown. Rob was on top of me trying to finish. When I got up he backed away and I called for my mouthpiece. Rob could have rushed me and I was watching him for that. The referee saw the break and that Rob was backing up not moving forward and for my safety he allowed me to get my mouthpiece. I really did not feel like the referee knew or saw any break and he did the right thing allowing Rob to attempt to finish me, when he was able to he gave me the mouthpiece back. Did the mouthpiece rest help me? No I was 13 minutes into the biggest fight of my life, I needed a day to recover not a few seconds. I think it was pretty text book.”
Varner clearly dominated McCullough throughout the entire fight. Varner’s assessment is right on. Even with the clean shot from Razor, “The Worm” was hurt but not so much where he looked disoriented or even close to being stopped.
It’s a weird situation … but much ado about nothing.
Written by admin on February 21st, 2008 with comments disabled.
Read more articles on Jamie Varner and World Extreme Cagefighting (WEC) and Rob McCullough and MMA.
World Extreme Cagefighting (WEC) is putting three championships up for grabs live from the Santa Ana Star Center in Albuquerque, New Mexico on February 13.
Headlining the card will be Albuquerque native and WEC welterweight champion, Carlos Condit (21-4), as he defends his title against Thugjitsu’s own, Carlo Prater (21-5-1).
Condit is fresh off an impressive submission victory over Brock Larson at WEC 29. He looks to cement his place as the WEC’s top welterweight by avenging his first professional loss - that came at the hands of Prater during Fightworld 2 back in 2004.
Also on the card former UFC lightweight Jamie “The Worm” Varner (13-2) tries to dethrone WEC’s lightweight juggernaut, “Razor” Rob McCullough (15-3). Varner was successful in his WEC debut against Sherron Leggett but will have all he can handle against McCullough who is undefeated (9-0) since 2004.
Rounding out the title bouts will be defending WEC bantamweight champion Chase Beebe (11-1) as he takes on submission master Miguel Torres (19-1). Beebe won the WEC title by defeating Eddie Wineland at WEC 26 last March but may find Torres - who has only one decision loss in 20 fights - a difficult hurdle to overcome.
The event will be televised live nationally on VERSUS beginning at 9:00 p.m. ET/6:00 p.m. PT. Tickets go on sale Saturday, January 12 at noon and are priced at $185, $115, $65, and $35. Tickets are available at Gettix.net or by calling 1-866-442-8849.
The remaining bouts for WEC: “Condit vs. Prater” have yet to be announced. Stay tuned to MMAmania.com for the all upcoming details.
*UPDATE* Manny Tapia (9-0-1) vs. Antonio Banuelos (14-4) has been added to the WEC lineup for February’s event.
Written by admin on January 8th, 2008 with comments disabled.
Read more articles on World Extreme Cagefighting (WEC) and Jamie Varner and Carlos Condit and Rob McCullough and Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) and MMA.
The day after he dismantled Rich Crunkilton in early September, WEC lightweight champ “Razor” Rob McCullough announced on the TAGG Radio show that he’d be making his next title defense in February against hard-hitting Bostonian Alex Karalexis. It seems, however, that the WEC has made other plans for its 155-lb. champion.
McCullough will be defending his belt in early February, but not against Karalexis, MMAWeekly is reporting. Instead, he’ll be taking on former UFC and current WEC lightweight Jamie “The Worm” Varner, who’s earned 9 of his 13 professional victories by way of submission.
McCullough told MMAWeekly,
“I think it’s going to be an interesting fight. He definitely has the skills to negate my skills, and therefore so do I. I think it’s going to be a great fight for the first couple of rounds, and then hopefully he’s packed a sleeping bag.”
Click here for more on McCullough vs. Varner from MMAWeekly.
Read more at FiveOuncesofPain.com (www.FiveOuncesofPain.com).
Written by admin on November 23rd, 2007 with comments disabled.
Read more articles on Jamie Varner and WEC and Rob McCullough and MMA.
Overall, I thought it was a slightly above average show. I liked the first show much better simply because the fights turned out better. The outcome of fights isn’t something a promotion can control so I’m not blaming the WEC. It’s just the way things went down.
Maybe some blame can be assessed to the WEC for not finding a better opponent for Paulo Filho, but if you want to find his equal then you’re going to have to bring in Dan Henderson, Matt Lindland, Rich Franklin, or Anderson Silva. That’s not going to happen and I think Joe Doerksen was a handpicked opponent to allow Filho to look dominant and help build up his name recognition in the States.
If that was the goal, then mission accomplished. If you had never seen Filho fight before then I don’t know how you couldn’t have been impressed with him after last night’s performance.
I do think some people are getting carried away though as I’ve read some message forum posts proclaiming Filho a good striker now. While his punches looked pretty powerful, his technique was not refined. He works hard on his striking but he still has a long way to go before he can be labeled a good, technical striker.
I was also disappointed by the quick outcome of the Larson vs. Condit match. I expected a war. But you can’t blame anyone because looking at it from a matchmaker’s perspective, there isn’t a bigger challenge to Condit currently on the roster than Larson. It was a great matchup that just didn’t go according to plan.
I am thoroughly impressed by Condit each time I see him fight. He’s going to be big time and will definitely be fighting in the UFC within the next two years. The WEC will need to bolster their welterweight division though if they want to make things interesting until then. If he can get past Larson that quickly then there’s no one who will pose much of a threat.
Jeff Curran vs. Stephen Ledbetter wasn’t anything special in my book but it was just good to see Curran in a televised match. It looks like there is a build towards a WEC featherweight title match between Urijah Faber and Curran. While I think Faber would win that match, it would still be pretty exciting.
Jamie Varner looked great in a dominant performance over Sherron Leggett. Varner is now 13-2 and should get to fight the winner of WEC lightweight title match next month between Razor Rob and Rich Crunkilton. That’s not anything I’ve heard, just my opinion.
Random Rants:
- I’m usually a big fan of Frank Mir’s work as a commentator. I thought he did great during the first live show several months back but I thought his game was off a little last night. It seemed like he couldn’t get his timing down.
- To piggyback on a point made by Dave Meltzer of The Wrestling Observer several months back, having Frank Mir do the post-fight interviews is just a bad idea. Mir towers over everyone and makes them look like midgets. Why not just pay some local Vegas sports reporter $2,000 per show to come in and do the interviews?
- Because of quick results to a lot of the fights they were able to show a lot of fighters in attendance. It makes the WEC seem a lot bigger. I also liked the interviews with Jens Pulver and Rob McCullough and how they promoted the next show. They did a much better job of future promotion this time than last but that’s likely because when they did the first Versus live show, there weren’t a lot of definitive details about the second show.
- Speaking of Pulver, if Mir is ever in a position where he can’t do a show because he’s training for a fight, Pulver would be an excellent substitute. He’s already done some broadcast work for the UFC and the IFL. If ESPN ever hired their own analysts for their coverage of MMA on ESPNews, Pulver would be a perfect for such a role.
- They should do an even better job with future promotion. Why is it that Joe Riggs is telling The Fight Network he’s fighting Jason Miller in October? Why do so many promotions get scooped on their own news? Maybe there wasn’t enough time, but it would have been cool if the report was addressed in some fashion.
- I am real curious to know the duration of the WEC’s contract with Versus. I just feel the product deserves a better distribution outlet. They have a lot of potential superstars in Condit, Filho, Larson, Urijah Faber, Jason Miller, Carlos Condit, “Razor” Rob McCullough, and Rich Crunkilton but I just don’t think Versus gives them enough exposure. I know a lot of people who still don’t get Versus and on systems that do carry it, it’s usually buried. I have DirecTV and it’s in between a tier of premium sports channels on channel 608. The non-premium sports channels (ESPN, ESPNews, NFL Network, etc.) are all in the 200’s. You can run all the promos of the fighters you want on Versus but what good is it if the only time people watch Versus is for the WEC? People really don’t even watch the NHL on Versus. Hell, there are already rumblings that the NHL could be going back to ESPN once their Versus deal is up.
- Prime channel positioning is important. My in-laws don’t even like MMA yet they knew exactly what the IFL was when they found out I was going to cover the show this past Thursday. They know what the IFL is because they watch it every Monday in spite of the fact they don’t like MMA. Why do they watch it? Probably because there is nothing but reruns of sitcoms or first run versions of scrub reality shows on network TV right now and the IFL is on channel 17 here in the Philly area. If you’re a channel flipper, you’re going to be passing the IFL. If you’re a channel flipper, odds are you aren’t going to find the WEC.
- If they aren’t looking into it already, Zuffa should be exploring other future television options for the WEC. I know it’s easier said than done, but I think the USA network would be great. The clearance is strong and the channel has prominent positioning on most cable systems. And of course, ESPN would be even better. You would think ESPN would have room for the WEC on ESPN II with WrekCage every Tuesday or Wednesday night along with a live monthly show.
- They should also do some kind of deal with YouTube that would put all the WrekCage shows on the Internet for free. They have a product that is very appealing to hardcores and it’s time to let everyone see it and get them all talking.
- The WEC champions are as follows: Chase Beebe at bantamweight (135 lbs.); Urijah Faber at featherweight (145 lbs.); “Razor” Rob McCullough at lightweight (155 lbs.); Carlos Condit at welterweight (170 lbs.); Paulo Filho at middleweight (185 lbs.); and Doug Marshall at light heavyweight (205 lbs.). That’s a pretty impressive lineup of champions. It could be a long time until McCullough, Faber, Condit, and Filho lose (if they ever lose in the WEC).
- Right now the only fighter currently on the WEC roster who poses even a small threat to Filho is Jason “Mayhem” Miller. If Filho gets past Miller, he’ll have smooth sailing until an inevitable debut in the UFC.
- There’s still a lot of talk that more additions will be made to the WEC roster consisting of a lot of the Japanese fighters from Pride. I still haven’t heard any names though. A non-Japanese fighter from Pride that I’d love to see is Zelg Galesic. Pride signed Galesic from Cage Rage and he debuted at Pride 34 and lost. However, the guy has a ton of potential and has earned the nickname of “Mini-Cro Cop.” He’s a prospect and would fit perfectly on the WEC roster.
- The WEC should have shown highlights of fights that took place on the preliminary portion of the card. Antonio Banuelos fought earlier on the show and has increased name recognition after being featured on TapouT. He could be a future title contender at 135 lbs. but there’s no promotion behind him coming from the WEC.
Written by admin on August 6th, 2007 with comments disabled.
Read more articles on Sherron Leggett and Jeff Curran and Urijah Faber and Chase Beebe and Antonio Banuelos and Versus and Jamie Varner and Stephen Ledbetter and Paulo Filho and Carlos Condit and Rob McCullough and Rich Crunkilton and Jens Pulver and WEC and Brock Larson and Joe Doerksen and Jason Miller and Joe Riggs and MMA.