World Extreme Cagefighting

The organization was founded in 2001 by entrepreneurs Scott Adams and Reed Harris. The first tournaments were held at the Tachi Palace Native American Casino in Lemore , California , and broadcast on HDNet cable channel.

In December 2006, WEC was acquired by Zuffa , the owner of the largest American fighting organization, the Ultimate Fighting Championship ^[1] . All the best fighters, primarily representatives of the heavy and heavy weight categories, gradually moved from there to a new employer, abandoning their champion belts, while the promotion itself continued to work mainly in the lightest and lightweight weight divisions, which at that time were not in the UFC, as well as in the light weight category ^[2] . The tournaments were now held at the Hard Rock Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas , where Zuffa was based, in the USA live broadcasts were carried out by Versus (the future NBC Sports Network ), in Canada - TSN and later The Score ^[3] . Scott Adams remained in the organization for some time as a match maker, but in 2008, Zuffa's management replaced him with Sean Shelby. Also, the new leadership decided to change the configuration of the fighting cell from pentagonal to octagonal, as is customary in the UFC.

WEC's full-time commentator was Todd Harris. Former expert of the UFC heavyweight champion Frank Mir was often present at the tournaments as a visiting expert, then he was replaced by Stefan Bonnard . MMA stars such as Kenny Florian and Jens Pulver were invited as experts. During the pay-per-view broadcast of WEC 48 , UFC full-time commentators Mike Goldberg and Joe Rogan worked. Post-match interviews with athletes were usually taken by Harris, or sports journalist Craig Hammer , who worked on the Versus channel. The role of ring announcer was almost always played by Joe Martinez, only at the very end of the organization’s existence he was replaced by UFC permanent announcer Bruce Buffer .

In 2008, in order not to conflict with the UFC, the organization dissolved its light heavy and medium divisions ^[4] . In 2009, she also refused the welterweight division, but introduced a new lightest division, which was not in the UFC. The light weight category remained the only category that existed simultaneously in both WEC and UFC ^[5] .

In January 2010, the producer of energy drinks AMP Energy became the general sponsor of World Extreme Cagefighting, the company also entered into sponsorship contracts with three leading fighters of the organization: Juraia Feiber , Chad Mendes and Joseph Benavides . The organization’s last tournament, the 53rd in a row, was held in December 2010, after which it was finally absorbed by the UFC, essentially ceasing to exist.

• WEC Champions List

• Official site (eng.)
• World Extreme Cagefighting - a list of past tournaments in the Sherdog database