mixed martial arts mma promotion fate merged with ultimate fighting championship successor ultimate fighting championship founded june 30 2001 defunct december 16 2010 key people scott adams and reed harris parent wme img website http www.wec.tv world extreme cagefighting wec was an american mixed martial arts mma promotion founded in 2001 . it was purchased by zuffa llc the parent company of the ultimate fighting championship ufc in 2006 . in its final incarnation it was made up of 3 weight classes 135 lb 61 kg 145 lb 66 kg and 155 lb 70 kg . to accommodate the smaller fighters wec s cage was 25 feet 7.6 m in diameter 5 feet 1.5 m smaller than the standard ufc cage . contents 1 history 2 relationship with ufc 3 media coverage 4 see also 5 references 6 external links history edit scott adams and reed harris started the organization in 2001 . between 2001 and 2006 most of their events were held at tachi palace hotel & casino in lemoore california and aired on hdnet . in december 2006 zuffa purchased wec . with the purchase wec continued as a separate promotion with its own roster of fighters . adams was retained after the purchase as the organization s matchmaker . harris and adams were named co general managers and were both active in the new wec . 1 in 2008 sean shelby was named the new match maker for the promotion by zuffa . zuffa made several changes to the promotion after the purchase . it discontinued its pentagonal cage for a modified version of the ufc s octagonal cage . the championships of fighters who were contracted ufc fighters were vacated . the promotion moved to focus on lighter weight classes abandoning their heavyweight and super heavyweight divisions and championships and retaining their bantamweight and featherweight divisions two divisions not then present in the ufc . 2 after the purchase several wec events were held in zuffa s hometown of las vegas nevada much like the ufc . wec aired their events live on versus formerly known as the outdoor life network and now as the nbc sports network in the united states and on tsn and later the score in canada . 3 wec s first live event was broadcast on june 3 2007 on versus from the joint at the hard rock hotel and casino in las vegas . todd harris was the play by play announcer on every televised wec event on versus and was joined by former ufc heavyweight champion frank mir on color commentary until the spring of 2010 when mir was replaced by ufc light heavyweight stephan bonnar . fellow zuffa fighters kenny florian and jens pulver have also filled in on color commentary due to mir or bonnar s absences . ufc announcers mike goldberg and joe rogan called wec s only pay per view event wec 48 in april 2010 . postfight interviews on the versus televised cards were typically done by either harris or versus sportscaster craig hummer . joe martinez served as the announcer for zuffa promoted wec events until april 2010 when he left the organization and was replaced by ufc announcer bruce buffer . however martinez made a one off return at wec 52 that november when buffer was overseas for a ufc event . wec announced that it would dissolve their light heavyweight and middleweight divisions after their december 3 2008 event to further their concentration on lighter classes . fighters from the light heavyweight and middleweight divisions started fighting in the ufc after the dissolution of their divisions . 4 also on february 3 2009 wec officially announced the creation of a 125 lb 57 kg flyweight division and the dissolution of its welterweight division flyweight would have been the last division under the unified rules of mma to be activated under zuffa excluding super heavyweight . fighters from the welterweight division started fighting in the ufc after the dissolution of their division . the only weight class that still crossed over between wec and the ufc prior to the merger was the 155 lb 70 kg lightweight division . 5 on january 8 2010 world extreme cagefighting announced that amp energy would be the official energy drink of wec . amp energy also sponsored three of wec s top stars featherweight urijah faber featherweight chad mendes and bantamweight joseph benavidez . on april 24 2010 wec held its only pay per view event wec 48 which featured two championship fights . the main event featured wec featherweight champion jos aldo defending his title against former champion urijah faber . 6 on october 28 2010 ufc president dana white announced that wec would merge with the ufc . 7 relationship with ufc edit due to its shared ownership under zuffa fans and commentators had continually speculated about a unification between wec and the ufc particularly the lower weight classes . 8 9 10 the relationship between the wec and ufc had also been complicated by their respective primary partnerships with cable television channels versus and spike fight magazine reported . 11 on october 28 2010 dana white announced the merger with the ufc . 12 media coverage edit on december 11 2006 ufc parent company zuffa formalized plans to buy world extreme cagefighting to be run as a separate promotion from the ufc . following the purchase of wec zuffa made several changes to the promotion . one of the most noteworthy changes included added media exposure when wec signed a deal to air events on versus beginning with wec 28 . prior to this wec had broadcast most of their events on hdnet . while on versus wec drew good ratings that averaged around 575 000 average viewers per event . however ratings ranged from 245 000 to 1 500 000 . the biggest ratings draw for wec was urijah faber . when faber was featured in a main event he drew an average of 840 000 viewers . faber was also featured in both main events 34 and 41 that drew over a million viewers for wec . the following table shows the international broadcasting of wec events australia setanta sports canada the score brazil canal combate denmark canal 9 israel egototal mexico canal 28 u.s. versus united kingdom extreme sports see also edit mma portal list of wec events list of wec champions list of wec bonus award recipients references edit ken pishna ivan trembow december 11 2006 . ufc buying world extreme cagefighting . mmaweekly . external link in publisher help savage greg january 4 2007 . the savage truth when is a loss a win . sherdog . pishna ken december 28 2006 . ufc on hbo ; wec on versus . mmaweekly . external link in publisher help martin damon august 26 2008 . wec shuts down 205 & 185 pound weight classes . mmaweekly.com . retrieved august 26 2008 . wec axes welterweights ; announces flyweights . mmaweekly.com . february 3 2009 . retrieved may 1 2009 . http www.wec.tv index.cfm fa eventdetail.fightcard & eid 2922 http mmajunkie.com news 21189 ufc and wec set to merge in 2011 events to air on versus and spike tv.mma ufc has weight and see attitude for wec a ufc wec merger why not does the wec still matter with ufc s recent moves white s predictions might have been conservative http www.youtube.com watch v zciwwlnjsn4 & feature sub external links edit official website v t e world extreme cagefighting events major events 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 years 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 v t e professional mixed martial arts organizations asia oceania ex . japan current art of war afc brace one road fc sfl urcc defunct legend fc ruff brazil current jungle fight shooto brasil defunct ivc canada current hard knocks kotc canada mfc wsof canada defunct tfc europe current bamma bushido fc cage warriors ffc ksw m 1 mma raju r 1 respect.fc ucmma defunct 10th legion cage contender cage rage finnfight slamm japan current deep jewels igf pancrase rings rizin ff shooto vtj zst defunct cage force dream hero s pride fc risingon smackgirl src valkyrie united states current bellator cffc invicta fc kotc legacy fc rfa tpf titan fc ufc wsof xfc defunct amma affliction ef elitexc proelite ifl pfc shark fights strikeforce usa mma wec wfa category retrieved from https en.wikipedia.org w index.php title world extreme cagefighting & oldid 738311902 categories mixed martial arts organizationsworld extreme cagefighting2001 establishments in the united statessports organisations established in 2001ultimate fighting championshiphidden categories cs1 errors external linksuse mdy dates from december 2015 navigation menu personal tools not logged intalkcontributionscreate accountlog in namespaces article talk variants views read edit view history more search navigation main pagecontentsfeatured contentcurrent eventsrandom articledonate to wikipediawikipedia store interaction helpabout wikipediacommunity portalrecent changescontact page tools what links hererelated changesupload filespecial pagespermanent linkpage informationwikidata itemcite this page print export create a bookdownload as pdfprintable version in other 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