The Big Announcement: UFC Absorbs WEC, Featherweights/Bantamweights Debut in January

(Props: MMAFighting)

The cat’s out of the bag, and the “major announcement” turned out to be pretty damn major after all. Dana White announced during a media call today that the UFC is absorbing the WEC beginning in January 2011; the UFC will now feature seven championship weight classes. Here’s how it’ll work…

– Jose Aldo is automatically the UFC Featherweight Champion; he’ll defend his UFC featherweight title at UFC 125 on January 1st against a yet-to-be-determined opponent.

– WEC 53 (December 16th; Glendale, Arizona) will be the final WEC event. The winner of the bantamweight title fight between Dominick Cruz and Scott Jorgensen will become the UFC Bantamweight Champion. The winner of the lightweight title fight between Ben Henderson and Anthony Pettis will automatically face the winner of Frankie Edgar vs. Gray Maynard at UFC 125.


– The UFC’s new deal with Versus includes four fights in 2011.

– Dana wouldn’t discuss those network TV deal rumors, and he didn’t feel like talking about Ontario, other than “it’s done, and we’re coming soon.”

– DW: “We’re already maxed out on pay-per-views…the way I see it, you’ll get more free fights.”

– There are no plans to add women or super-heavyweights into the UFC. However, an Ultimate Fighter season with featherweights and/or bantamweights will happen “soon.”

– Sean Shelby and Reed Harris don’t need to start preparing their resumes just yet. Said Dana, “we’ll figure out how everybody’s gonna fit in, but there’s so much work to do over here that nobody’s gonna be sitting around.”

– No word on if Brittney Palmer will also be absorbed into the UFC, though the current Octagon Girl pit could certainly use her.

Anyway, pop a bottle of bubbly in honor of more title fights on the pay-per-views and bigger paychecks for the smaller guys. If any other important details emerge, we’ll let you know…