One of the things I’ve disliked about the WEC is the fact that the promotion has continued to carry the heavier middleweight and light heavyweight weight classes. Dana White suggested in an article over at the Canadian section of Yahoo! Sports on Saturday that Zuffa may be heading toward taking those divisions out of the WEC and merging them with the UFC’s own divisions.

White says the UFC has no plans to introduce a 145-pound weight class. “That’s why we bought the WEC (World Extreme Cagefighting).”

In fact, he said they are going to take steps to make the two circuits more distinct. “We’re going to make the WEC the smaller weights and the UFC will be the heavier weights. We’ll probably take some of the guys in the higher weights, the champions over there and bring them into UFC. We’re still trying to figure that out.”

WEC features 135-(bantamweight) and 145-pound (featherweight) weight classes as well as 155, 170, 185 and 205. The UFC has 155, 170, 185, 205 and heavyweight.

I like this move by the UFC and Dana White. Not only will Paulo Filho be moving over the promotion, but he’s probably going to be pushed up to the Light Heavyweight division after having massive problems with performance after cutting weight in the Middleweight division. His grappling should be dangerous against the divisional opponents in the UFC, and he’s arguably one of the most dangerous fighters on the ground in the world.

Brian Stann could also be an addition to the Ultimate Fighter Season 8. An Iraqi war hero on the show will get tons of exposure the American public and likely grab a huge following due to his duties in the military from members of the armed services within that same demographic. I’m a bit sick of hearing his story, but we all know the UFC will exploit it.

The rest of the fighters in those weight classes would likely make cannon fodder for upcoming talent in those divisions, or possibly make their way into the mid-echelon of those divisions in the UFC. I don’t think Doug Marshall can hang in the UFC, but Chael Sonnen could effectively dominate the lower level fighters at middleweight. Regardless, I’m not too keen on seeing those fights at this point.