We’ve mention the forthcoming UFC roster cuts in passing, but Michael Rome at Bloody Elbow has more details:

The UFC will be cutting a lot of fighters in the upcoming months. They have reached a point where they have so many fighters that even upper-mid level guys like Karo Parisyan fought only twice in 2007. Having that many guys, and only having them fight twice a year also makes it very hard to establish new stars, so Zuffa is going to start cutting guys that either lose a couple in a row or have boring fights.

Apparently they are planning on purging the 185 and 205 divisions from the WEC. I suspect they will bring in a few guys from each division over to The UFC (Stann, Marshall, Filho, etc), and cut the rest off. Brian Stann has tremendous marketable potential if he’s able to train full time, there’s no way they’re going to let him go.

I almost wish they’d take the rest of the 205′ers in WEC and put them on TUF just so we could see some decent fights next season, but my guess is they’ll just be cut. It should be interesting to see who survives this purge

I wouldn’t be surprised to see Zuffa bury the WEC altogether. In theory, I like the idea of having a promotion dedicated to the lighter weight classes but Zuffa/UFC doesn’t have a stellar track record of trying to run two promotions or, for that matter, merging two promotions together.

The WEC has a few top fighters that they could easily move to the UFC including the aforementioned Brian Stann, Paulo Filho. At the lower weights, Urijah Faber is a no-brainer to keep around as well as some other solid fighters like Chase Beebe, Carlos Condit, and Jeff Bedard. Micah Miller is a real good fighter as well, and his presence sets up a grudge match between “guys who’s first name ends in the letter ‘H’” with Urijah Faber down the road.

Don’t get me wrong–I like the WEC’s product and think having a promotion not only for the lower weight classes but also as a place to develop young fighters at the higher weights is a good idea. With Zuffa’s efforts to reduce their fighter payroll lower than the payroll at an average 7-11 store I just don’t see them keeping it around for the longterm.

Purge and Merge @ BloodyElbow