World Extreme Cagefighting made tremendous strides in 2007 in its first full year under the ownership of Zuffa, which is also the parent company of the UFC. Under Zuffa's guidance, the WEC upgraded its television deal from HDNet's reach of six million homes to Versus, which is currently available in 77 million. The promotion also imported several stars from the ill-fated World Fighting Alliance, a fight organization Zuffa acquired select assets from in December 2006.
Some of those "assets" include the promotion's current lightweight champion, "Razor" Rob McCullough, and featherweight champion Urijah Faber, who doubles as the franchise face of the WEC. As strong of a campaign as 2007 was for the WEC, the plan is to take things up a notch or two in 2008, according to the company's vice president of operations and production, Peter Dropick.
Dropick, tapped by Zuffa to head the WEC following eight years as an executive at the former Arrowhead Pond in Anaheim, revealed in an exclusive interview with CBSSports.com that the promotion not only is planning to promote multiple shows outside of its home base in Las Vegas but is eyeing pay-per-view as well. Dropick also spoke at length about the WEC's additional plans for 2008.
CBSSports.com: Are there any new plans for the WEC in 2008 that you can reveal?
Peter Dropick: We're going on the road. We were based in Las Vegas at the Hard Rock during 2007. We're taking the events on the road and we have our first event on the road in Albuquerque on Feb. 13, which we've announced. I have plans to look at a couple more markets outside of Vegas in 2008.
I still want to have some presence in Vegas but there are a few other markets we're looking at. They range from Southern California, Northern California, Texas, Oklahoma, New Jersey and Florida. A lot of them are mid-markets (as) we're not getting overly aggressive and thinking we can fill a coliseum, or something to the effect. So we're being smart and looking at (which cities) are some of our top TV markets on Versus. We're also looking at the hometowns of some of our top fighters and just general good MMA markets or fight towns, and Albuquerque is one of them.
Q: There's been a rumor that the WEC show scheduled for March could be held in Sacramento in Urijah Faber's hometown. Is there any truth to that?
A: It's a possibility. We're still looking at dates and venues and our availability for TV, if it's Versus or possibly ... we are looking at a pay-per-view opportunity as well. I hope to have that wrapped up within a week, hopefully. That's obviously a fight (Faber vs. Jens Pulver for the WEC featherweight title) that makes sense, and I think everyone wants that fight.
Q: I'm glad you brought PPV up because I was going to ask you about that. PPV can be a tough nut to crack for a fight promotion. What needs to happen before the WEC transitions from being televised for free on Versus to going on PPV? What do you feel are some of the other things the WEC needs to bring to the table?
A: I think we need to keep growing our audience on Versus. Our ratings have been trending upwards every fight, which we're very happy about. I think we need to expand our market a bit more. We have been based strictly in Vegas. By going to new cities you are growing your audience.
And I think we also need the right card as well. Everyone wants to see Jens and Urijah fight, and that's very attractive but we want a solid card from top to bottom. If there's (only) one superfight in a sense then I'm not sure that makes sense from a financial standpoint. We want to be smart about it. We have a good roadmap, and we're not just going to throw it on pay-per-view and try to sell out a big arena just to say we did it; that's not in my plans.
Q: How many shows does the WEC plan to run in 2008?
A: It's going to be a minimum of six fights. That's what I have scheduled now and I could potentially add a few more to that. In addition to that we have the WrekCage taped program on Versus. That program will be a combination of fights that didn't make our live broadcasts along with some of our best fights that have aired already. So we have eight WrekCage programs in 2008. That's six live and eight WrekCage.
Q: The goal of the WEC is to build a roster that is on par talent wise with the UFC, which is not something that happens overnight. Can you talk about some of the bigger challenges the promotion has had to overcome within the last year?
A: Part of it is identifying the talent. There's so many organizations out there and there's guys that are in different countries, whether it's South America or over in Japan, it's just (a matter) of finding these guys. There's obviously a challenge in showing these fighters that we're one of the best organizations in the world. We say we're the second-best organization in the world, next to the UFC. And it's educating these fighters of who we are and what opportunities we're going to bring to them (and) how they can grow with us. Versus is an amazing TV partner that's in 77 million homes.
There's no one else out there outside of the UFC on Spike TV that can give a fighter that type of exposure. Educating these guys to grow with us and not to take the quick money and fight on a cable network that is in five million homes or 18 million homes just to take a little bit more money just to do that ... some of these guys don't get that. We want guys to grow with us and as we grow they're going to benefit from that inside the cage and outside the cage.
You're going to see here over the next month or so some announcements from an advertising standpoint. We just announced the Harley Davidson deal. I've got another one that I'm in contract stages with that I hope to announce before the February fight in Albuquerque and then there's a third that we're finalizing, and we hope to make that announcement as well. These are mainstream, known Madison Avenue sponsors and advertisers. This would be huge for us in taking that next step.
But back to my point, that's going to start benefiting some of these fighters, because now these advertisers are going to want to sponsor fighters directly. To only grow that sponsorship will give us even more exposure and those are just some of the benefits we'll be bringing to the table and you're going to see that pretty quick here with some of these guys.
Q: There has been some talk that Budweiser could be in the fold soon.
A: We're talking to all the major sponsors in a range of advertisers to get us out there in all the top categories from beer, to spirits, to auto, to clothing, to soft drinks, to water, etc. We're in discussions with all these advertisers. They're starting to see that this is something they are more comfortable with.
Q: Urijah Faber has really stepped up as the franchise face of the company. He's been unstoppable. His next test could be his stiffest when he defends his title against Pulver. If Faber gets past Pulver, is there a plan in place to make sure he continues to be challenged?
A: Absolutely. We've said from the beginning that we want to get the best guys in the world. The advantage to having the lighter weight classes is that we can have the best fighters in the world at bantamweight and featherweight. So we can go out to some of these guys and say, "You're going to fight in the WEC, you're going to fight the best guys in the world in your weight class. I think there are a few more guys out that can challenge Urijah and there are just more and more coming along. The talent pool is growing every day with fighters. That's one of the advantages that we have.
Q: Very few fighters have been transferred from the UFC roster to the WEC roster. Jens Pulver and Leonard Garcia are the only fighters who I can really think of, and they only moved because the UFC didn't have a 145-pound weight class. Might we see more UFC fighters transferred over to the WEC as you look to build out your roster?
A: We're not really crossing guys over. We've said this all along; this isn't a farm system or a developmental league so we wouldn't look to "bring a fighter down" because he didn't perform in the UFC. Jens was a prime example of how we think this should work. He was fighting at '55 and said, "You know what, '45 is my natural weight class and there's only one place to go. And that's the WEC." I think for opportunities like that we'd look at it but it's not something where we're going to be bouncing guys back and forth between organizations.
Q: The WEC is the highest rated show on Versus. But while Versus has done a great job increasing its reach, it doesn't off the same size of an audience as say a Spike TV or ESPN. What can be done to maximize the distribution levels of the WEC's product?
A: We're only talking a difference ... I think ESPN is in 92 million homes and Spike is in 91 million homes. It's not that huge of a difference. Versus is growing their distribution every day so it won't be in the same amount of homes and Comcast is their parent company, which is a massive media company. We've seen them put a lot more into promoting Versus as a network and Versus as a brand.
They've been very aggressive in going out and acquiring the rights to more leagues. They've got the NHL, PBR, college football, college basketball so when you start to bring out those leagues, you're only going to grow your audience, which is only going to help us. We work with them constantly in finding new ways in getting us out there. But Versus is a great, strong partner of ours and we're extremely pleased. I think we're growing everyday and I think that more people are realizing who Versus is, which ultimately helps expose the WEC.
Q: How much input does Dana White have when it comes to the WEC? As a part-owner in Zuffa, obviously he's a boss. But how involved is he when it comes to the day-to-day operations?
A: Dana stays involved. He stays up to speed with everything that's going on. We work closely, as well with some of the other executives here. Dana plays an intricate part, absolutely. He just necessarily hasn't been the face as he has been of the UFC and I think that's just naturally developed.
Sam Caplan is a lead writer/editor for ProElite.com as well as the publisher of his own blog, FiveOuncesOfPain.com and a contributing writer for the magazine FIGHT! You can contact him via e-mail at: SCaplan8@comcast.net.