Home Categories Miscellaneous Did Zuffa Make the Right Move with Takanori Gomi?
Did Zuffa Make the Right Move with Takanori Gomi?
Written by Joshua Taylor   
Tuesday, 12 January 2010 15:07
I have been pondering this move ever since Zuffa formally announced the signing of Gomi. Obviously Gomi, as of late, hasn’t yet proven himself to be the fighter he was from 2004 through 2006, but he still possesses star power and big potential. The UFC may have a superstar on their hands if they handle him right. However, my issue is that the UFC already has lots of stars.

The WEC on the other hand, is pushing Urijah Faber back into title contention well before he should be, simply because he is one of their few marketable stars. The problem becomes even more evident in their LW division where they arguably only have three fighters that draw fan interest in Cerrone, Varner, and Henderson.

Personally, I feel Zuffa should have done everything in their power to sign Gomi to the WEC, where not only his chances of success would be greater, but he could be a superstar pushed to the forefront of the company. There are so many potentially exciting matches for him in the WEC. Just imagine: Gomi vs. Cerrone, Gomi vs. Varner, Gomi vs. Njokuani, Gomi vs. McCullough, and a number of others. Simply put, there is a large roster of LW strikers in the WEC that Gomi could have had really fun fights with. More importantly though, the WEC has many fights at the top of their LW division which Gomi could win.

I also think that it’s wise for Zuffa to utilize the WEC to try and break into the Japanese market. Currently the majority of lighter weight Japanese talent is signed to DREAM or WVR, but that doesn’t have to be the case. If the WEC was committed to breaking into the Japanese market, they could easily sign some of the top fighters from that region, and by having “The Fireball Kid” (who built his fame in Japan) on their roster, they would already have an enticing lure.


Finally, if Zuffa added Gomi to the WEC's roster rather than the UFC's, I think they would show a real commitment to keeping the WEC a viable MMA commodity, which could stand on its own outside the UFC. It seems like the talk of Zuffa merging the UFC and WEC brands will not go away and thus far executives have been adamant that it will not happen. However, I don’t think their actions reflect this. The rumored Flyweight division has been talked about for over a year now and still we have no definite plans in place. We also do not see a commitment to signing top LW prospects to the WEC.

I think if Zuffa is committed to keeping the WEC as a separate and successful brand, they need to start making moves to ensure its future growth. They missed a big opportunity to do this with the handling of Gomi, but I am sure other opportunities will present themselves and I, for one, hope they take full advantage of them.