Dominick Cruz discusses the importance of World Extreme Cagefighting ahead of his UFC title fight this weekend.
Back in the day, there was this MMA promotion that aired on Versus. It was the stage for some of the best fights in the history of the sport, and many of the current stars of the UFC cut their teeth there. It was called World Extreme Cagefighting, and it was my favorite promotion of all time. Not Pride. Not Strikeforce. The WEC. And I may or may not have squealed with glee, just for a second, when Dominick Cruz talked about it at length with MMA Fighting recently.
Cruz was the last bantamweight champion in the WEC’s history, taking his belt over to the UFC. He competed in the second-to-last bout in the their history as well, a decision win over Scott Jorgensen. He went 7-1 over three and a half years with the little promotion that could, so he’s quite qualified to talk about it. And that he did – grousing over the fact that it doesn’t get the recognition it deserves, especially for how it helped the lighter weight classes come along:
“No one recognizes it. No one remembers it. It’s the most annoying thing. The WEC belt was the world title in my weight class.”
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“We were the pioneers,” said Cruz. “We were the ones who did all the heavy lifting. All those years before Zuffa bought the WEC, smaller fighters who had world class talent had to fight at casinos or overseas or up in weight and make chump change for doing it. The WEC guys were the ones who brought it to the masses and showed what we did was the real deal.”
Cruz, who fights UFC bantamweight champion T.J. Dillashaw this weekend at UFC Fight Night 81 in Boston, reflected on his accomplishments, along with his fellow fighters that competed in the WEC:
“It’s all right there in front of you. Look at the results. Look at how many guys have won championships in the UFC. It’s been five years since the WEC ended, five years is an eternity in this sport, and we’re still at or near the top of our divisions. MMA’s the type of sport where you can come up with all sorts of intellectual arguments to put down someone’s accomplishments, but there’s simply no denying the results when we finally got to the biggest stage.”
This is true. Demetrious Johnson is one of the sport’s P4P best, for one. Along with Cruz and Johnson, you have Urijah Faber, Anthony Pettis, Ben Henderson, Jose Aldo, Donald Cerrone, Carlos Condit, and so many more.
The WEC was the best, and it’s great that Dominick Cruz is keeping the “WEC Never Die” drive alive.