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One-on-One: WEC Vice President Peter Dropick Previews WEC 40 And More
By Ariel Helwani
March 17, 2009

With WEC 40: Torres vs. Mizugaki right around the corner (April 5, Versus, 9pm ET), Versus.com’s Ariel Helwani caught up with WEC vice president Peter Dropick to talk about the upcoming card, WEC’s future on pay-per-view and much more.

Below is a transcript of their conversation.

Is there a lot of buzz in the Chicago-area for this show because of the fact that two native sons, Miguel Torres and Jeff Curran, are fighting in big fights?
Yeah, there is definitely a buzz between Miguel and Curran fighting in their hometown. They tell me that the city is divided between the two of them. Some people are Curran fans and others are Torres fans. You know, you are looking at over a 100 fights between these two guys in their hometown, so there is a definitely a buzz. Chicago is an awesome sports city, too. So, we’re looking forward to getting out there on April 5th, and I encourage everyone to come out because the prelims have some of the best fights on there. So, come out in person and see it.

Takeya Mizugaki is making his WEC debut against Miguel Torres on April 5th. Since a lot of fans are not so familiar with his fight game, can you give us a brief preview of what to expect from him?
Well, he is obviously one of the best bantams in the world. Unfortunately, when (Brian) Bowles got hurt, he was the next logical choice. He’s top-five in the world, fighting out of Japan. Exciting fighter, (who) loves to throw. You know, he’s been talking a little bit, saying he’s going to knock Torres out. I am not sure what Torres thinks of that. The last guy who said that was Manny Tapia and Torres went toe-to-toe with him and we saw the outcome of that. (Mizugaki) is an outstanding striker, and he’s going to put on an exciting fight, that’s for sure. He’s quite confident, he doesn’t care that he is coming into Torres’ backyard. He wants to come and prove to America that he is the best in the world, so this is going to be exciting.

If Torres continues to win, would you ever consider matching him up with either Mike Brown or Urijah Faber in some kind of catchweight super-fight?
You know, it’s not in the plans, but we would consider it. Absolutely. Right now, it makes sense for these guys to keep fighting in their weight classes. Miguel still has a lot of top contenders to fight in his own weight class, as does Brown.

A lot of fans are excited to see up-and-comer Joseph Benavidez test himself against a veteran like Jeff Curran. That’s a great co-main event.
Yeah, he is one of the top guys in (the bantamweight) division. Like you said, that is a huge contender fight. Obviously, Curran is the veteran and making his debut at 135 (pounds) in his hometown, too. We are realizing how popular he is in the Chicago area. I mean, he’s been fighting out of there for years and years. So, fighting in front of his hometown is big. But Benavidez, obviously coming out of (Urijah) Faber’s camp, he’s an absolute stud. He’s an exciting fighter, and he trains every single day with one of the best in the world (Faber), so that’s going to be a great, great fight. We are looking forward to that one. And if you look at the card top-to-bottom, we got Manny Tapia on it, Rani Yaha’s on it, the Fredson Paixao-Wagnney Fabiano fight is on it, Dominick Cruz-Ivan Lopez…I mean, we have some of the best feather(weight), bantam(weight) fighters in the world on this card from top-to-bottom. I think a handful of these prelims would be on main cards in other places. So, hopefully we’ll get a couple of those on the live broadcast, as well. 

Yeah, it certainly says a lot when guys like Wagnney Fabiano, Cub Swanson and Manny Tapia – who just main evented a card in December – are all on the undercard.
(Laughs) Yeah, it’s tough, but this is a perfect example of what you are going to see now. We’re going to have more and more of these top contender fights that could be main cards in other places. You are going to get more exposure on a lot of these guys now especially because we don’t have to go through all these divisions and have title fights because there is no way, obviously, that you can move those. So, these cards are going to be stacked.

Let’s talk about the growth of World Extreme Cagefighting. How pleased have you been with the way things have progressed since Zuffa took over the organization two years ago?
We’ve been very pleased. We think there’s been substantial growth over the past two years on Versus, as well as growing our events into different markets, growing our attendance, fighter exposure, our sponsorship. The process takes a little longer; it’s not an overnight thing. So, we’ve been pleased with where we’re at this point, but we certainly feel like there’s a lot more growth.

How difficult has been to carve out your own place in the MMA world, so you’re not simply viewed as the UFC’s sister organization?
It’s definitely something that we need to educate the fans on. I think by moving some of the weight classes and dissolving them into the UFC, and then adding on the 125 (pound division), I think we’ve really differentiated ourselves and established the WEC as the home of the best lightweight fighters in the world. But it’s still an educational process, and getting the fans to understand that it is not a farm system, it’s not a developmental league. It’s a parallel organization with a focus on the lighter weight classes. This is the home of the best lightweight fighters in the world, and this is where they want to come.

Was the decision to drop some of the heavier weight classes always part of your long-term plans, or did you and your staff make that decision along the way?
There was talk of it early when Zuffa took over the organization. It wasn’t necessarily something we were going to do by X date. I think we were waiting to see how this played out, and we saw that it would make sense. You know, the UFC is obviously stacked and has the best fighters in the world at the 205 (pounds), 185 (pounds) and 170 (pounds). We had some good fighters in there, but there wasn’t the level of competition they needed. And from a business standpoint it made sense, as well. The timing was such that it allowed us to move those (fighters) over and really build our lighter weight classes and get more exposure to a lot of those fighters. We had so many good fighters in there, but we just didn’t have the ability to give them the exposure they needed because of the number of fights we had to put on and the number of weight classes we had.

When can we expect to see the flyweight division introduced in WEC?
I don’t have an exact date yet. I hope that it’s later this year. I have plans on how to launch that. I just don’t want to put on the fights (right away). I think we’ve got some plans on how to launch that weight class so these guys get immediate exposure and get the recognition. So, late fall, early winter is realistic.

Are you planning on holding a tournament to crown an immediate flyweight champion?
We would have some tournament-type aspect that would get us to a champion. That’s in our plan as part of how we want to launch this.

Any truth to the rumors that WEC will be making its pay-per-view debut later this year?
Well, it could be as soon as June. 

Really?
Yup, we are looking at doing a June one now. It could be as soon as then, if not, my guess is that it would probably be early in the fall. And that would be the (Urijah) Faber - (Mike) Brown rematch.

Since you have no upcoming shows announced would a potential June pay-per-view headlined by Faber vs. Brown II be your next event?
Yes, we would still do a Versus fight earlier in June, and then sometime later on, we would do the pay-per-view.

Would you ever consider putting the undercard on Versus and the main fights on pay-per-view?
No, I think we would deliver another full card to Versus. There would still be main card fights and then have a pay-per-view stand-alone.

Is Sacramento the leading candidate to hold that first pay-per-view card?
Sacramento is an option, but there is no confirmation on that. I’ve got actually three or four different cities (that we are looking at), but that would obviously be one of them.

Should Miguel Torres successfully defend his bantamweight title next month against Takeya Mizugaki next month, is there a chance that he would also fight on this potential June pay-per-view?
Well, we definitely want our pay-per-view to be completely stacked. That fight depends on what happens here in Chicago (WEC 40, April 5). And not just who wins, but if these fighters are able to fight in a few months. But there is a possibility for that. We are still putting together the different scenarios for what the undercard would be. But yeah, we absolutely want to have the top guys on there.

Would a WEC pay-per-view cost the same as a UFC pay-per-view?
No, it would be less.

Any price range in mind?
I don’t have an exact one, but it would certainly be less. 

Would you consider putting a couple of UFC fights on a WEC pay-per-view?
No, no plans for it. We’ve never said that we wouldn’t do that, but currently there are no plans for that. 

You recently dissolved your welterweight division. Are there any plans of doing the same to your lightweight division since that is the last one that WEC shares with the UFC?
We are pleased with where we’re at. No plans to make any additional changes outside of adding a 125 (pound division) later in the year. We’ll have four weight classes, and we think it’s a good number.

Is it safe to assume that Jamie Varner’s next lightweight title defense will be a rematch against Donald Cerrone?
TBD. You know, Jamie is still healing; he got a bit banged up. So, it kind of depends on when he is ready to fight and the timing of it. So, that one remains to be seen. 

Gina Carano has yet to officially sign with Strikeforce. Is WEC still interested in potentially adding her to its roster?
We want the best fighters in the world, whether that is male or female. She is certainly an exciting fighter, and she brings in a strong TV and live audience. At this point, we don’t know her status, so at this point we don’t have any plans. But we do want the best fighters in the world, so if that is an option later, we will certainly consider it. 

If Gina ends up signing with Strikeforce, would you still be open to the idea of introducing a female division?
She is obviously the best, the most popular and the most exciting out there. So, I think that we’ll wait and see what happens with the other organizations. 

We saw Jens Pulver call the most recent WEC broadcast on Versus. Does this mean that his fighting career is over?
No, he’s still fighting. He filled in for us and did an outstanding job. You know, Jens is part of the family. I know he still has some fights left in him. He’ll probably be on one of the June cards. He wants to keep going, but after that, I think he wants to stay on board and do some TV work. He’s just a great ambassador to the sport and he’s a great ambassador to the lightweight fighters. We want to keep Jens around, he’s part of the family here.