The WEC 43 card scheduled for September 2 in Youngstown, Ohio, has been canceled, World Extreme Cagefighting announced Monday. The next WEC event will now take place on Saturday, October 10, in an as-yet unannounced location.
The reason given for the postponement was an injury to Ben Henderson, who was set to fight Donald Cerrone in the main event. No details of Henderson's injury were given, and it is not clear whether the October 10 show will have the same fights that were scheduled for the September 2 show, or whether the card might be changed.
UPDATE: A WEC official tells me it will be the same card on October 10 that was scheduled for September 2.
It's also not clear why the WEC -- which usually puts on fights on Wednesdays and Sundays -- chose to move its card to a Saturday. It might have something to do with speculation that Strikeforce was considering a major card featuring Fedor Emelianenko on October 10.
The WEC was also likely concerned about ticket sales in Youngstown and about the effects of its home network, Versus, possibly being pulled from DirecTV. If Versus and DirecTV can't reach an agreement, Versus will no longer be available to DirecTV subscribers, and that would mean many fans would have to miss WEC 43. Moving the event to October 10 gives Versus and DirecTV six more weeks to come to an agreement -- or give WEC fans six more weeks to switch to a cable provider that carries Versus.
Whatever the reasons, changing the card would be a good idea. As it stood, WEC 43 would have been the weakest card that World Extreme Cagefighting had put on since Zuffa, the UFC's parent company, purchased the promotion. None of the WEC's truly elite fighters -- Mike Brown, Brian Bowles, Urijah Faber and Miguel Torres -- were scheduled to participate, and outside those four, the WEC doesn't have a lot of star power. Moving this card to October 10 gives the WEC more time to sell the card to MMA fans.
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