Much has been said and written about the decision of World Extreme Cagefighting to move back its scheduled September 2 WEC 43 show to October 10, and in everything that's been said and written, the WEC has insisted that it had nothing to do with the ongoing dispute between DirecTV and the WEC's home network, Versus.
But whether the DirecTV-Versus battle had anything to do with it or not, it's a good thing for MMA fans who are DirecTV subscribers that the show was moved back. Because as of 12:01 AM ET Tuesday, Versus is no longer available on DiercTV.
When DirecTV subscribers turn to 603, the channel that used to host Versus, they now get a message reading, "Versus is no longer available on this channel. Comcast, which owns Versus, has forced us to take down the channel because we will not submit to their unfair and outrageous demands. For more information go to www.directv.com/versus".
If WEC 43 were taking place as scheduled on Wednesday, a large chunk of the audience would have missed it, as DirecTV and Versus are not expected to come to an agreement within the next 36 hours. But DirecTV and Versus are expected to come to an agreement within the next six weeks, which means WEC 43 should be available to DirecTV subscribers.
So whatever this mysterious injury to Ben Henderson that pushed back WEC 43 was, it will allow DirecTV subscribers to watch his fight with Donald Cerrone. If the fight were taking place as originally scheduled, DirecTV subscribers would be left in the dark.
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