UFC Director of Canadian Operations Tom Wright gives CanadianProFighter.com his thoughts on WEC-UFC merger

By MIKE JOHNSTON

The biggest story in MMA today continues to be the recent announcement of the Ultimate Fighting Championship adding two weight classes and a plethora of talent by enveloping the World Extreme Cagefighting promotion. Last week, while the UFC Heavyweight Champion, Cain Velasquez, was in Toronto on a media crawl, the UFC’s Director of Canadian Operations, Tom Wright, accompanied him. Wright gave his thoughts on the recent WEC-UFC merger and believes it is positive news all round for the sport.

“I think it does a lot of great things,” said Wright. “First of all, it provides a bigger platform for all the great fighters at those lower weight classes, from bantam to featherweight. To really show their skills, their athleticism, on a much bigger scale when you’re part of the UFC.”

As the UFC brand continues its worldwide expansion, Wright says this merger can only do positive things. “As we grow internationally -we’re growing in South America, we’re opening up an office in Asia, we’re having conversations in India- and I think that to be able to fuel that kind of sport demand and consumer demand, it’s really helpful to bring in these new fighters,” said Wright.

Also, the merger will lead to deeper, more exciting fight cards. “The third thing I think that’s really important is that with now seven weight classes for UFC, there’s every opportunity that we can potentially have a championship fight on every card,” said Wright. “And that’s important.”

Although the merger doesn’t affect him directly, the new UFC Heavyweight Champion Cain Velasquez gave his thoughts. “It brings a lot of the top fighters from those other weight classes,” said Velasquez. “They come in, which is good, I mean, better competition, you’ll see better fights, more exciting fights, so that’s always good [for the sport].”

As for any new developments on the UFC coming to Toronto, Wright said there is no news to speak of just yet: “We want to bring our first event to Ontario next late-spring/summer, so it’s all good.”

For more MMA news and notes, follow me on Twitter @MikeyJ_MMA.