WEC Officially Adds Flyweight Division

Courtesy of MMAMANIA.COM
World Extreme Cagefighting (WEC) announced back in September that it would no longer support light heavyweight and middleweight divisions, deciding instead to focus on lighter weight classes such as welterweight (170 pounds), lightweight (155 pounds), featherweight (145 pounds) and bantamweight (135 pounds).

Now Zuffa has officially added flyweight (125 pounds) to that list of divisions.

With this move, the WEC will become the first major mixed martial arts organization in the United States to promote matches and recognize a champion in the flyweight division.

This is good news for the WEC in wake of the recent changes. Many fans wondered if the existing roster would be enough to support the promotion on its own. Now with the addition of flyweight, the WEC will be able to tap into an already established division.

And what better time to introduce fans to the likes of Yuki Shoujou, BJ Kojima and the real Afro Samurai Mamoru Yamaguchi?

It will also enable the promotion to showcase more lighter fighters more often on its cards and continue to build stars. Under the old format, several talented up-and-comers either didn’t fight frequently enough or were buried on the non-televised portion of the cards.

However, when one door opens another usually closes. The promotion not only introduced the new weight class today, but they also officially eliminated the existing welterweight division (what was left of it).

That announcement probably didn’t come as much of a surprise to most since Carlos Condit, the reigning WEC welterweight champion, was already scheduled to face Martin Kampmann in the main event at UFC Fight Night 18.

His original WEC opponent Brock Larson, will join Condit in the UFC when he reportedly battles Jesse Sanders at the same event on April 1.

Not that the Octagon was experiencing a shortage of talented welterweights, but adding Condit and Larson will only further diversify the UFC roster and promote even better match-ups.