Scrappy WEC leaves legacy of action-packed bouts, quality fighters

It’s no surprise.

World Extreme Cagefighting co-founder and general manager Reed Harris is doing what must be his 50th interview about the organization’s final event, which features two title bouts and will take place Thursday night at Jobing.com Arena.

Amid the media responsibilities and appearances at everything from a Phoenix Coyotes game to a public rally for hometown hero and lightweight

champion Ben Henderson at Margaritaville, Harris has had little time to reflect on the culmination of the little side project he helped start in 2001 in Lemoore, Calif.

"We’re swamped," he said. "But I’m excited about it. I think it’s going to be a good show, and I’m really proud and excited that the guys are now going to get to fight in the (Ultimate Fighting Championship) and get more eyeballs in front of them.

The WEC started as a potentially one-time-only event at Lemoore’s Tachi Palace Casino but will be dissolved into the UFC after staging its 53rd card.

Henderson, who will defend the lightweight belt against Anthony Pettis, is already feeling nostalgic.

"I am completely and forever thankful to the WEC as my home," said the 27-year-old fighter, who would be the No. 1 contender to the UFC lightweight title with a victory Thursday. "I grew up a lot as a fighter in the WEC. I got national exposure. The life I live now is all thanks to WEC."

The WEC has done some growing up of its own since that first card, when Harris was doing far fewer interviews.

In fact, the only credential issued for that show was to mixed martial arts website sherdog.com.

It wasn’t for a lack of effort.

"We actually made credentials and pretty much begged (media) to come," Harris said jokingly. "We were like, ‘Look, you’re going to get this badge that says media on it. All access and you get in the show for free.’ "

The card still managed to be a success at the box office.

During the fights, the casino’s entertainment director came on stage and asked when they could do another card.

Harris, who was a real estate executive learning jiu-jitsu and taekwondo and judging MMA fights on the side, obliged.

The second card did better than the first, and the third better than the second. Then came the fourth card, as the WEC tried to venture away from its original region and stage a show at the Mohegan Sun in Connecticut.

That show was the first to lose money, and "for about a day" Harris and co-founder Scott Adams considered scrapping the whole thing.

The WEC returned to the Tachi Palace for the fifth event and really began to take off with a television deal on HDNet. The organization grew to the point that it was acquired by Zuffa, the parent company of the UFC, in December 2006.

At first, the WEC shared many of the same weight classes as the UFC. In late 2008, the decision was made to eliminate the upper weight divisions and focus on the smaller fighters. The WEC has just the 135-pound and 145-pound class, which the UFC doesn’t yet have, and a 155-pound class, which does currently exist in the UFC.

"The funny part of that story is that I argued with (UFC president) Dana (White). He really did have a vision for us," Harris said. "I had really gotten very close with a lot of these fighters and I didn’t want to let them go. He was like, ‘Look, if you’re going to come out from underneath our shadow, you’re going to have to focus on divisions we don’t have,’ so we started doing that."

The plan seemed to work.

The WEC increased its visibility with a TV deal on Versus and even staged its first pay-per-view show in April.

That’s when Harris thought the organization had truly reached a new level.

"(Jose) Aldo vs. (Urijah) Faber, when Faber came out," he said. "The crowd was crazy and I thought, ‘I can’t believe this is my show that I did in Lemoore. There are a lot of different moments, but I think the pay-per-view event really kind of capped it for me."

Whether because of the lighter weight classes, the slightly smaller cage or because, as Henderson said, the fighters have "a bit of a chip on their shoulders," the WEC developed a reputation for staging consistently exciting and action-packed fights.

Anthony Pettis, who will challenge Henderson for the belt, hopes that will be the organization’s legacy.

"The WEC was a home for me, and it made me who I am today, and I’m grateful I was able to show my skills on such a high level," he said. "I want it to be (remembered) as an organization that put on great fights and had some great fighters come through."

Scott Jorgensen will challenge Dominick Cruz for the bantamweight title. The winner will be the final WEC bantamweight champion and the first in UFC history.

"You’re going to see the UFC become a better organization because of us," Jorgensen said. "We’re going to start cleaning up those knockout-of-the-night, submission-of-the-night and fight-of-the-night checks, and it’s going to make those big boys start putting on a fight if they want those bonuses."

Harris said he will take on a role in the UFC that he isn’t willing to discuss until the final WEC card is in the past.

While he acknowledged that it will be somewhat bittersweet to see the WEC fade into the past, he said it will never really go away.

"Those divisions are always going to be in the UFC, and I can go watch them now and know that it was based on something I was involved in that put us in position to put them in the UFC," Harris said. "There’s no other company that’s ever put weight divisions in the UFC. Or fighters. I feel like we’ve really accomplished a lot."

Contact reporter Adam Hill at ahill@reviewjournal.com or 702-224-5509.