Bantam- and Featherweights: Breaking Through a Glass Ceiling
In recent weeks and months, MMAPayout and others have discussed the feasibility of bringing the WEC and UFC together in some way. Most of these discussions have centered on the business practicality, from an organizational perspective, of a merger or re-branding. I thought it would be interesting now to examine the issue — one I frame as a lack of ppv, and thus economic, opportunities for lighter-weight fighters — from the perspective of the fighters themselves.
At some point it might be worth studying how we got here, but for current purposes it’s important only that this is the state of things: Zuffa owns two MMA organizations, the UFC and the WEC. UFC has five weight classes, starting at 155 lbs.; WEC has three weight classes, 135, 145, and ending at 155 lbs. WEC’s shows appear exclusively on Versus basic cable, whereas UFC’s biggest shows air on pay-per-view television. Consequently, it’s more lucrative to fight in the UFC than it is to fight in the WEC, though a beating remains a beating, and medical bills don’t discriminate based on a fighter’s purse.
Team Lloyd Irvin’s Muhsin Corbbrey (lightweight), who fights Anthony Njokuani at WEC 43 on October 10, noted that WEC’s smaller purses only become significant at the highest levels. In other words, the lower-level fighters in UFC aren’t making a ton of money, either (although they’re making more than their WEC counterparts), but when you get to the highest levels — the ppv draws like Brock Lesnar, Chuck Liddell, and GSP — the money to be made fighting in UFC is enormous, and to date no bantam- or featherweight has even been given the opportunity to pass or fail the ppv test.
According to Muhsin, fighters shouldn’t expect to become wealthy off of their fight purses, but rather should use whatever visibility they gain through fighting to market themselves in other ways (e.g., sponsorships), and indeed this is an intelligent path for the vast majority of fighters.
But then there are the exceptions, the ones at the top end, the draws, or in the case of the smaller fighters, the potential draws, which brings me to the tragic case of Urijah Faber.
Surely it’s beyond debate that Zuffa and WEC missed the boat with Urijah Faber, WEC’s former 145-lb. champion. “The California Kid” had (and has) a look that screamed money, and, just as important, he can fight, but Faber was relegated throughout his multi-year title reign to fighting on the relatively limited universe of Versus, and not on ppv.
I emphasize that we’re not talking about a situation in which the public was offered, and rejected, the opportunity to pay to see an exciting smaller fighter, but instead the case had been conclusively settled in advance: Urijah Faber would never get to see how far he could go in the sport; it might be a loaded term, but so long as that ppv door remains closed, there’s an MMA glass ceiling for smaller fighters.
True, we’d hear rumblings of plans to put WEC led by Urijah on ppv, specifically with respect to Faber/Brown II, but the plans never came to fruition, and now that Brown seems to have Urijah’s number, the window of opportunity to capitalize on Faber’s potential superstardom has probably permanently closed.
Mike Brown, beast that he is, simply lacks that it factor, the ineffable charisma that’s so important in making the public want to pay to see you fight. (Muhsin noted that Brown, perfectly suited for fighting at 145, even tried his hand at 155, likely due to the greater economic potential fighting for UFC than for WEC.)
Mike Brown is limited by being Mike Brown, perhaps a great mixed martial artist, but oh so plain.
One fighter without such limitations is Team Lloyd Irvin’s Mike “The Hulk” Easton, Ultimate Warrior Challenge’s (UWC) 135 lbs. champion, who faces former WEC champion Chase Beebe at UWC 7 on October 3, in a fight that Mike Thomas, on MMA Nation radio referred to as the biggest ever in the DC area. It’s a fight that was supposed to take place way back in February, but for whatever reason, Beebe at that time decided to skip the weigh-ins and the scheduled UWC title confrontation. For Mike Easton, who has waited over half a year for the fight, the chase finally ends on October 10.
“I don’t know how I’m going to win, but I will win,” a smiling Mike told me last week as we talked, his two-year-old son, Champ Mike Easton, playing nearby. With Mike’s last two fights ending in victories via the guillotine choke, that might (or might not) prove instructive on October 3.
Easton – genuinely a nice guy — has such a laid back, warm personality that, and it’s almost a cliche at this point when it comes to martial artists, unless you knew beforehand, you’d never guess what he does for a living. Beyond that, this guy’s superstar potential is off the charts. Mike Easton has the rare combination that allows someone to break out from the pack: both the it factor (i.e., charisma) and the ability to fight at the highest levels.
Easton is someone to keep an eye on. I’ve heard him referred to as the hottest prospect in the Mid-Atlantic area, but I’d go further and say he’s the brightest superstar prospect at the bantam- or featherweight level since Urijah Faber. (You can watch three of his fights at Sherdog.) Easton oozes charisma from the time he steps through the curtain for his ring entrance, which he admits is influenced by his years watching professional wrestling, but this would mean nothing if Mike couldn’t follow it up in the cage. Follow it, though, he does, typically in devastating fashion, and it’s a pity that Mike Easton is not yet a better known name.
I have a theory, probably unprovable, that if ppv opportunities were available to someone like Mike, either through UFC or WEC, he probably would not still be fighting in the regional UWC, but as Easton said, he makes more money fighting for the UWC than he could for WEC. Easton also noted, though he couldn’t go into particulars, that the UWC has plans for greater MMA growth on the East Coast.
Irrespective of how big UWC gets, it obviously will never prove as financially rewarding to a superstar (or potential superstar) as fighting for UFC could be. My argument is that Mike Easton is that lighter-weight superstar, the next Urijah Faber, waiting in the wings. Zuffa blew it with Urijah; let’s hope that lessons have been learned, and wheels are in motion to prevent it from happening again.
Mike Easton has a very loyal, very devoted, regional following, which will be on display when he fights Chase Beebe at UWC 7 for the promotion’s bantamweight title on October 3 (I believe Sherdog.com will offer a live stream of the main card).
In recent weeks and months, MMAPayout and others have discussed the feasibility of bringing the WEC and UFC together in some way. Most of these discussions have centered on the business practicality, from an organizational perspective, of a merger or re-branding. I thought it would be interesting now to examine the issue — one I frame as a lack of ppv, and thus economic, opportunities for lighter-weight fighters — from the perspective of the fighters themselves.
At some point it might be worth studying how we got here, but for current purposes it’s important only that this is the state of things: Zuffa owns two MMA organizations, the UFC and the WEC. UFC has five weight classes, starting at 155 lbs.; WEC has three weight classes, 135, 145, and ending at 155 lbs. WEC’s shows appear exclusively on Versus basic cable, whereas UFC’s biggest shows air on pay-per-view television. Consequently, it’s more lucrative to fight in the UFC than it is to fight in the WEC, though a beating remains a beating, and medical bills don’t discriminate based on a fighter’s purse.
Team Lloyd Irvin’s Muhsin Corbbrey (lightweight), who fights Anthony Njokuani at WEC 43 on October 10, noted that WEC’s smaller purses only become significant at the highest levels. In other words, the lower-level fighters in UFC aren’t making a ton of money, either (although they’re making more than their WEC counterparts), but when you get to the highest levels — the ppv draws like Brock Lesnar, Chuck Liddell, and GSP — the money to be made fighting in UFC is enormous, and to date no bantam- or featherweight has even been given the opportunity to pass or fail the ppv test.
According to Muhsin, fighters shouldn’t expect to become wealthy off of their fight purses, but rather should use whatever visibility they gain through fighting to market themselves in other ways (e.g., sponsorships), and indeed this is an intelligent path for the vast majority of fighters.
But then there are the exceptions, the ones at the top end, the draws, or in the case of the smaller fighters, the potential draws, which brings me to the tragic case of Urijah Faber.
Surely it’s beyond debate that Zuffa and WEC missed the boat with Urijah Faber, WEC’s former 145-lb. champion. “The California Kid” had (and has) a look that screamed money, and, just as important, he can fight, but Faber was relegated throughout his multi-year title reign to fighting on the relatively limited universe of Versus, and not on ppv.
I emphasize that we’re not talking about a situation in which the public was offered, and rejected, the opportunity to pay to see an exciting smaller fighter, but instead the case had been conclusively settled in advance: Urijah Faber would never get to see how far he could go in the sport; it might be a loaded term, but so long as that ppv door remains closed, there’s an MMA glass ceiling for smaller fighters.
True, we’d hear rumblings of plans to put WEC led by Urijah on ppv, specifically with respect to Faber/Brown II, but the plans never came to fruition, and now that Brown seems to have Urijah’s number, the window of opportunity to capitalize on Faber’s potential superstardom has probably permanently closed.
Mike Brown, beast that he is, simply lacks that it factor, the ineffable charisma that’s so important in making the public want to pay to see you fight. (Muhsin noted that Brown, perfectly suited for fighting at 145, even tried his hand at 155, likely due to the greater economic potential fighting for UFC than for WEC.)
Mike Brown is limited by being Mike Brown, perhaps a great mixed martial artist, but oh so plain.
One fighter without such limitations is Team Lloyd Irvin’s Mike “The Hulk” Easton, Ultimate Warrior Challenge’s (UWC) 135 lbs. champion, who faces former WEC champion Chase Beebe at UWC 7 on October 3, in a fight that Mike Thomas, on MMA Nation radio referred to as the biggest ever in the DC area. It’s a fight that was supposed to take place way back in February, but for whatever reason, Beebe at that time decided to skip the weigh-ins and the scheduled UWC title confrontation. For Mike Easton, who has waited over half a year for the fight, the chase finally ends on October 10.
“I don’t know how I’m going to win, but I will win,” a smiling Mike told me last week as we talked, his two-year-old son, Champ Mike Easton, playing nearby. With Mike’s last two fights ending in victories via the guillotine choke, that might (or might not) prove instructive on October 3.
Easton – genuinely a nice guy — has such a laid back, warm personality that, and it’s almost a cliche at this point when it comes to martial artists, unless you knew beforehand, you’d never guess what he does for a living. Beyond that, this guy’s superstar potential is off the charts. Mike Easton has the rare combination that allows someone to break out from the pack: both the it factor (i.e., charisma) and the ability to fight at the highest levels.
Easton is someone to keep an eye on. I’ve heard him referred to as the hottest prospect in the Mid-Atlantic area, but I’d go further and say he’s the brightest superstar prospect at the bantam- or featherweight level since Urijah Faber. (You can watch three of his fights at Sherdog.) Easton oozes charisma from the time he steps through the curtain for his ring entrance, which he admits is influenced by his years watching professional wrestling, but this would mean nothing if Mike couldn’t follow it up in the cage. Follow it, though, he does, typically in devastating fashion, and it’s a pity that Mike Easton is not yet a better known name.
I have a theory, probably unprovable, that if ppv opportunities were available to someone like Mike, either through UFC or WEC, he probably would not still be fighting in the regional UWC, but as Easton said, he makes more money fighting for the UWC than he could for WEC. Easton also noted, though he couldn’t go into particulars, that the UWC has plans for greater MMA growth on the East Coast.
Irrespective of how big UWC gets, it obviously will never prove as financially rewarding to a superstar (or potential superstar) as fighting for UFC could be. My argument is that Mike Easton is that lighter-weight superstar, the next Urijah Faber, waiting in the wings. Zuffa blew it with Urijah; let’s hope that lessons have been learned, and wheels are in motion to prevent it from happening again.
Mike Easton has a very loyal, very devoted, regional following, which will be on display when he fights Chase Beebe at UWC 7 for the promotion’s bantamweight title on October 3 (I believe Sherdog.com will offer a live stream of the main card).
