From Kevin Iole's mailbag:
Brown and Aldo will meet for Brown’s World Extreme Cagefighting featherweight title in what legitimately figures to be one of the finest matches of 2009 on Nov. 18 at the Palms in Las Vegas.
That will put it three days before UFC 106, in which Lesnar was scheduled to defend his title against Shane Carwin in the main event. With Lesnar forced to withdraw because of mononucleosis, Tito Ortiz and Forrest Griffin were bumped to the UFC main event. However, the move also affords Brown and Aldo to escape Lesnar’s considerable shadow.
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WEC general manager Reed Harris said more conflicts with the UFC are inevitable in 2010. He said choosing a date is a tricky process that involves working with Versus, which broadcasts WEC cards, as well as venues.
Here's Reed Harris talking to Heavy.com:
When we decided to focus on the lighter weights we knew we had our work cut out for us. But if you look at boxing for example, it took many yeas, but now the lightweight guys are the guys everybody is interested in. If you look at the time frame, I only started really focusing on the light weights about eight months ago. Now look where we are at. Everyone in the MMA industry says the best lightweights in the world fight for WEC. I get calls from across the world, from Japan, from Korea, from Brazil, with coaches saying 'I've got lightweight fighters we want to bring into the WEC, because these guys want to fight the best.' It used to be the other way around. We used to have to chase after them.
I think in the next year you're going to see a lot of things happening in the WEC. We've got a new deal with Versus. We're going to go to the PPV model. We're going to possibly go to Mexico and Canada and expand internationally. We're going to do more shows. I'm looking forward to next year. You're going to see alot of things happen with the WEC and I think that we are starting to step out of the shadow of the UFC. They are our parent company and they cast a big shadow. I think going to the lighter fighters, which was something Dana (White) wanted us to do and, by the way, I didn't want to do. Now I look back and I'm really glad we did that.
It's often been said here and elsewhere online that the UFC and the WEC should merge. That would allow WEC champs like Urijah Faber and Miguel Torres Mike Brown and Brian Bowles to beef up UFC cards in desperate need of top tier fights. It would also dramatically increase the pay for the top fighters in the smaller divisions.
But the reality is that Zuffa signed a deal with Versus that insists on a strong branding separation between UFC and WEC. And Spike TV is very mindful of their prerogatives. They're not going to let anything that can be perceived as a UFC fight to air on the Versus network.
With Versus' declining reach, that deal is looking less attractive by the day. It served its purpose to box out competitors from getting significant cable coverage but now Zuffa is paying the price.
SBN coverage of WEC 44: Brown vs. Aldo