WEC 43 up Against Stiff Competition

The main storyline going into WEC 43 was the ongoing dispute between Versus and DirecTV and how that would affect MMA fans unable to watch the event.

An item that was forgotten in this narrative was the WEC's stiff competition from other sports on Saturday night. WEC 43 began at ten o'clock eastern time and had to compete with the second half of both the LSU-Flordia and Iowa-Michigan games.

The WEC did catch a break from inclement weather in Denver, which postponed the MLB divisional series between the Colorado Rockies and the Philadelphia Phillies.

Still with the loss of DirecTV viewers coupled with the competition from college football it will be interesting to see what kind of ratings WEC 43 does. The card was already postponed once due to an injury and it was widely suspected that poor ticket sales, due to a lack of star power on the card, contributed to the delay.

Hopefully WEC 43 will be able to outdraw the fledgling United Football League, which debuted on Versus earlier this week. The UFL reportedly beat NHL coverage on Versus.

One of the widely held beliefs about the MMA community is that they aren't general sports fans. Ironically, if this perception is true WEC 43 should be able to draw consistent numbers comparable to their other cards. But if MMA fans are not just a niche fan base and enjoy the wider world of sports than it is reasonable to expect a drop off in ratings

WEC 43: Cerrone vs. Henderson coverage