WEC 48 (Faber vs. Aldo) to be on PPV

[CPT]

WEC GM Reed Harris confirmed in a radio interview that WEC 48, which will feature a main event of Jose Aldo vs. Urijah Faber for the WEC FW Championship, will be a $44.95 PPV.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=obku9_Soxbg

There have been rumours about the WEC going to PPV eventually, and speculation that this event would be the one where they make the jump, but as far as I know this is the first time it has been confirmed, with a price tag attached to it. It may end up being less than $44.95, but that's what Harris said he wanted to charge.

How do you guys feel about this?

To be honest, it doesn't affect me much, as I can't watch the event on Versus or PPV anyway, but if I was a regular PPV consumer, I'm not sure I'd be too stoked to put down $45 for a WEC event, even though they are usually pretty entertaining. I'm not sure how many buys they would need to be profitable, but considering their regular audience isn't even that big, I'm not sure how many buys they can reasonably expect. 50,000-100,000? Is that enough to make the event profitable?

I guess we would first have to consider the card. Aldo vs. Faber is definitely a huge fight, I'd say it's a PPV worthy main event. I think the UFC PPV model has shown that the vast majority of buys come from the strength of the main event/co-main event, as opposed to the card as a whole, but I wonder if that will apply to the WEC's more "hardcore" audience.

I would think they would have Cerrone vs. Varner on this show at the very least. That's the biggest non-title fight they have right now by far.

They could also have a Ben Henderson LW title defense, most likely against Anthony Njokuani. Henderson has already beaten him, which complicates things, but he's had 3 straight KO of the Night victories since then, and probably looks like the top contender if you take Varner and Cerrone out of the equation.

I guess they couldh have a FW #1 contender fight between Mike Brown and someone as well. Probably Taurosevicius, because Mike Brown will win that fight. It could be someone like Josh Grispi, but I think they would be better served to steer him toward a title shot without fighting Mike Brown.

I think it will have 3 pretty big fights, maybe 4, and the rest will look like a typical WEC card.

You guys have any ideas for the fights after Aldo/Faber?

[CPT]

bump

Hopefully people care about this a little bit more now than they did when it was announced in January.

Here's how the card ended up shaping up:

MAIN CARD (Pay-per-view)

* Champ Jose Aldo vs. Urijah Faber (for featherweight title)
* Champ Benson Henderson vs. Donald Cerrone (for lightweight title)
* Mike Brown vs. Manny Gamburyan
* Anthony Njokuani vs. Shane Roller
* Antonio Banuelos vs. Scott Jorgensen

PRELIMINARY CARD (Spike TV)

* Leonard Garcia vs. Chan Sung Jung
* Alex Karalexis vs. Anthony Pettis

PRELIMINARY CARD (un-aired)

* Demetrious Johnson vs. Brad Pickett
* Chad Mendes vs. Anthony Morrison
* Takeya Mizugaki vs. Rani Yahya
* Tyler Toner vs. Brandon Visher

**** badass.

Will be the lone bright spot in a month of very disappointing MMA events.

[Nemesis21]

I don't have a problem with it being PPV, just wish more people know about WEC . For example I go to Hooters or Beef o Bradys to watch UFC PPVs, I wish those places would also show the WEC PPVs .

[Posey H8er]

UFC is going all out there to pimp the WEC for this PPV. All of the promos say "UFC presents WEC 48" and they're all over television and the web. I also heard Rogan and Goldie would be calling the PPV.

[cowboyronnie]

UFC is going all out there to pimp the WEC for this PPV. All of the promos say "UFC presents WEC 48" and they're all over television and the web. I also heard Rogan and Goldie would be calling the PPV.

Both effective ideas, I'd bet. Get some SpikeTV programming in there.

I'm forgetting the logic in why they're a different organization at all. Couldn't they be called UFC2 or something?

[CPT]

I'm not sure if it's still around, but the commercial they had been showing for the event had absolutely no mention of WEC.

It was like, UFC presents the World Featherweight Championship, Aldo vs. Faber, and had Dana White and Joe Rogan talking about it, mixed in with highlights of both guys.

At the very end they had the WEC.tv website at the bottom, but that was about it.

I think they keep both around for the TV contracts, but it makes you wonder why they don't combine them when they go so far as to blatantly hide the fact that it is a WEC event when promoting their biggest show to date.

[SDM]

They could finish off Strikeforce for good by combining WEC/UFC immediately.

[El Hardee]

I will surely purchase this PPV, most of the time I fell screwed after getting the UFC events, I know for sure I'll get my $ worth on this one. I got Aldo knocking out Faber in a wild one, and Cowboy getting his on B-Smooth. My gym had a BJJ tourney last month and Henderson entered the Purple belt division, he barely got by one of our 17 year old students by 1 adv point, then he got tooled by some brazizlian cat.

[spykelee]

Lookin forward to the event, but i'll get to watch er at work, otherwise there's no way i'd be buying this ppv...

anyways, for my picks.

Aldo by knockout
Cerrone by TKO
Mike Brown with the KO

as for the rest of the fights, I don't know/care who wins, just want to see some entertainin throwin down.

[CPT]

My picks/thoughts...

Aldo vs. Faber
Great fight, but I don't really see how Faber is supposed to win. I guess wrestling? I wouldn't mind seeing what Aldo is like off his back, since we've heard so much about how great he is on the ground, but I'd much prefer to see Faber get KTFO.

Cerrone vs. Henderson
Should be excellent, but just off the top of my head, I can't remember many rematches of great fights being as good as the first. I'm not sure it's either of these guys' style to have a boring fight though, so I still have high hopes. Don't know who takes it, it's basically a pick em, but I'll go with Bendo. If the going gets tough, he's got the ability to control where the fight is and win rounds with takedowns.

Brown vs. Gamburyan
Brown finally gets to have a height and reach advantage in a fight, but I don't think he will need it. He's just better. He should win this and then fight the Faber/Aldo winner.

Njokuani vs. Roller
For some reason I thought this was a rematch, but it isn't. I like Njokuani, but I think Roller wins this via takedowns and control.

Jorgenson vs. Banuelos
Jorgenson wins this convincingly to avenge the first fight and somewhat controversial decision, and become the #1 contender at 135.

Garcia vs. Jung
WAR KOREAN ZOMBIE!! Jung is one of the better fighters to come out of Korea. He should arguably be undefeated, because he had that very close fight with Kanehara in Sengoku that a lot of people thought he won. In any event, I think he's a lot better than Garcia, who after his little flirtation with contendership has been exposed as a sloppy brawler who just isn't that good. That being said, he still has the chance to connect on one of his wild punches, and I'm not exactly sure what Zombie's path to victory is, aside from a decision garnered by just being better overall. Really looking forward to this fight.

Karalexis vs. Pettis
Pettis looks like a stud, and Karalexis is being led to slaughter in this one. Highlight reel KO for Pettis, first or second round.

Johnson vs. Pickett
Don't know a whole lot about either guy. Pickett has much more experience, but Johnson is supposed to be a sick athlete with a lot of potential.

Mendes vs. Morrison
Mendes is supposed to be the next big thing at FW, and Morrison isn't. Maybe Mendes can get a finish in this fight.

Mizugaki vs. Yahya
This fight jumped out at me because of the names, but when I really look at it, I think it's a pretty easy win for Mizugaki. He should be able to defend the subs and put a beating on Yahya, but I still would like to see this fight to see how it plays out, given that both guys are probably still top 15 BWs.

Toner vs. Visher
I've heard good things about Tyler Toner, especially his standup, but I think Visher is supposed to be too much for him at this point in his career. Will be interesting to see what happens.

Counting on this show to save what's been a very disappointing month in MMA.

[singh_shady]

Guys quick question, what aprox. time do you think the Faber-Aldo fight will be on? I'm busy for the next 2 hours or so, I'm wondering if I can make it back quick enough to catch a stream of the last fight.

[singh_shady]

Also, as per Dana White's Vlog, apparently Aldo is coming out to 'Run this Town' as his entrance song tonight. That's pretty bad ass.. (the idea behind it, not the song lol)

[GoRapstheoriginal]

Great fights so far on the free prelims on Spike! ! !

[Posey H8er]

What a **** fight!!!

[Posey H8er]

Guys quick question, what aprox. time do you think the Faber-Aldo fight will be on? I'm busy for the next 2 hours or so, I'm wondering if I can make it back quick enough to catch a stream of the last fight.

edit- don't listen to what I said, it's going quickly.

[spykelee]

Wow what a fight between Johnson and Pickett. That was awesome!!! I was pulling for Johnson to get the W so a little dissapointed, but Pickett's a vet, he knew how to get the W. Great fight though.

Cerrone takes this one versus Henderson me thinks...

[spykelee]

WOW

usually the cowboy just needs to be woken up but he didn't even get that chance in this fight. Henderson was smooooth for sure. That was sick

[SpReEfOrAlL]

Whoa. ..

[spykelee]

can anyone say outclassed? I can't believe this is actually going to the 5th round...

[High 5]

Aldo needs to get to 155 pronto.