By Mike Johnston, sportsnet.ca
When Frankie Edgar and Benson Henderson step into the Octagon at UFC 144 they will be fighting for the UFC lightweight belt.
However, you could say they will also be fighting for the unofficial World Extreme Cagefighting 155-pound title.
In December of 2010 the UFC enveloped the WEC — a fight promotion also owned by Zuffa — and the majority of WEC fighters including its champions made their way to the UFC.
Before that, on Dec. 3, 2008, the WEC’s middleweight and light-heavyweight divisions were absorbed into the UFC so the WEC could concentrate on lighter weight classes; in February 2009 the welterweight division did the same.
During the transition process there were many doubters that believed WEC fighters wouldn’t fare well against the UFC roster.
What’s fascinating to see is that despite some people referring to the WEC as a second-tier promotion, all of the WEC championship belts wound up at the top of the UFC divisions.
Here is a look at who the WEC champions would be today if the belts were still around:
LIGHTWEIGHT
Henderson won the WEC interim lightweight championship at WEC 43 when he defeated Donald Cerrone in an epic five-round battle. Henderson then unified the titles when he submitted Jamie Varner at WEC 46. But in the last fight in WEC history the belt changed hands once again.
Track the belt: Henderson lost the crown to Anthony Pettis at WEC 53 after getting “Showtime kicked” and dropping a decision … Pettis was scheduled to unify the WEC and UFC titles against the winner of Edgar vs. Gray Maynard, but the two fought to a draw and Pettis was stuck in no man’s land. Pettis lost to Clay Guida in his UFC debut at the TUF 13 finale … But Guida was then beaten by Henderson at the first UFC on FOX event in November.
Current WEC lightweight champion: Benson Henderson
WELTERWEIGHT
The last welterweight champ was Carlos Condit, who won the 170-pound title in his second fight with the promotion when he beat Canadian John Alessio at WEC 26. He went on to defend his belt three times, finishing Brock Larson, Carlo Prater and Hiromitsu Miura before moving to the UFC.
Track the belt: Condit lost to Martin Kampmann at a UFC Fight Night in April 2009 … Kampmann was TKO’d by Paul Daley at UFC 103 … Daley lost to Josh Koscheck at UFC 113 … Koscheck lost to Georges St-Pierre at UFC 124.
Current WEC welterweight champion: Georges St-Pierre
Condit will look to earn back the belt he officially never lost when he fights GSP late in 2012 after St-Pierre returns from a knee injury.
MIDDLEWEIGHT
The middleweight belt is tricky as technically the last official champ was Paulo Filho, even though Chael Sonnen won a dominant unanimous decision over Filho at WEC 36. But Filho missed weight and their fight was changed to a non-title bout. For argument sake let’s call Sonnen the rightful, last ever 185-pound WEC champ.
Track the belt: Sonnen was submitted by Demian Maia at UFC 95 … Maia was knocked out by Nate Marquardt at UFC 102 in 21 seconds … Marquardt lost to Sonnen at UFC 109 … Sonnen then lost the ghost belt to Anderson Silva in that memorable UFC 117 match.
Current WEC middleweight champion: Anderson Silva
Silva and Sonnen are scheduled to meet at some point in 2012.
LIGHT-HEAVYWEIGHT
The last WEC 205-pound champion was Steve Cantwell, who defeated Brian Stann at WEC 35 before the two men dropped to middleweight.
Track the belt: Cantwell defeated Razak Al-Hassan in his UFC debut, but then lost to Luiz Cane in December 2008 … Cane was knocked out by Antonio Rogerio Nogueira at UFC 106 … Lil Nog was defeated by Ryan Bader at UFC 115 … Bader lost to Jon Jones at UFC 126 … Jones beat Mauricio (Shogun) Rua at UFC 128 to hypothetically unify the titles.
Current WEC light-heavyweight champion: Jon Jones
FEATHERWEIGHT & BANTAMWEIGHT
The featherweight and bantamweight titles are the only ones that haven’t changed hands since the WEC disassembled.
Jose Aldo began his WEC career 5-0 before earning a title shot. The Brazilian beat Mike Brown at WEC 44 to win the featherweight championship and hasn’t looked back since. He defended his belt twice in the WEC against Manvel Gamburyan and Urijah Faber before joining the UFC. He has gone on to defeat Mark Hominick, Kenny Florian and Chad Mendes and currently awaits his next challenge.
Dominick Cruz dropped to 135 pounds shortly after being submitted by Faber at WEC 26. Since then he has gone 10-0. He won the bantamweight belt at WEC 47 when he became the first man to defeat Brian Bowles. He defended his strap against Joseph Benavidez and Scott Jorgensen in the WEC and has topped Faber and Demetrious Johnson in the UFC. A trilogy bout with Faber is slated to take place at UFC 148 in July.
Mike Johnston is a Digital Content Editor for sportsnet.ca and has been covering mixed martial arts since 2008. You can follow him on Twitter at @MikeyJ_MMA.
