WEC to Compete with SEC Powerhouses on Oct. 10
Sherdog.com Staff Aug 29, 2009
The WEC announced on Friday through a
press release that it has selected a new venue for its Oct. 10
show, which was originally scheduled for Sept. 2 in Youngstown,
Ohio.
The Las Vegas-based promotion will market a live Versus-broadcasted event on a Saturday evening for the first time since being purchased by Zuffa -- the parent company of the UFC. WEC 43 will go toe-to-toe with a primetime college football game that pits SEC powerhouses Florida and LSU against one another. The game will be televised nationally on CBS.
While NCAA football rarely packs the ratings punch that the NFL
delivers week in, week out, it remains a formidable opponent in the
hunt for television’s most-prized demographic: men between the ages
of 18 and 34.
The WEC has avoided going head-to-head against the NFL in the past, favoring mid-week fights over its usual offseason Sunday cards.
“We are really excited to be bringing this fight card to San Antonio,” said WEC General Manager Reed Harris in the media release. “They say everything’s bigger in Texas. We plan on living up to that slogan by bringing some of the most prominent mixed martial artists in the world to San Antonio.”
The Lone Star State’s AT&T center will host the card, which will be headlined by Donald Cerrone vs. Ben Henderson for the interim WEC lightweight title.
“As we stated earlier this week, an injury to Henderson prevented him from being ready to fight on Sept. 2, but he’s fired up and ready for ‘Cowboy’ on Oct. 10,” Harris said. “It’s the perfect scenario. We’ve got a world title fight on a Saturday night in one of the nation’s biggest cities. It doesn’t get much better than that.”
Due to hand, foot and eye injuries suffered in his bout with Cerrone in January, WEC lightweight champion Jamie Varner will be unable to defend the 155-pound outright title for the foreseeable future.
The Las Vegas-based promotion will market a live Versus-broadcasted event on a Saturday evening for the first time since being purchased by Zuffa -- the parent company of the UFC. WEC 43 will go toe-to-toe with a primetime college football game that pits SEC powerhouses Florida and LSU against one another. The game will be televised nationally on CBS.
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The WEC has avoided going head-to-head against the NFL in the past, favoring mid-week fights over its usual offseason Sunday cards.
“We are really excited to be bringing this fight card to San Antonio,” said WEC General Manager Reed Harris in the media release. “They say everything’s bigger in Texas. We plan on living up to that slogan by bringing some of the most prominent mixed martial artists in the world to San Antonio.”
The Lone Star State’s AT&T center will host the card, which will be headlined by Donald Cerrone vs. Ben Henderson for the interim WEC lightweight title.
“As we stated earlier this week, an injury to Henderson prevented him from being ready to fight on Sept. 2, but he’s fired up and ready for ‘Cowboy’ on Oct. 10,” Harris said. “It’s the perfect scenario. We’ve got a world title fight on a Saturday night in one of the nation’s biggest cities. It doesn’t get much better than that.”
Due to hand, foot and eye injuries suffered in his bout with Cerrone in January, WEC lightweight champion Jamie Varner will be unable to defend the 155-pound outright title for the foreseeable future.
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