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With the news that WEC 42 will be postponed to October 10th and will not occur in Youngstown, Ohio, many in the MMA community are trying to figure out why such a cancellation occurred?

Bloodyelbow and Dave Meltzer think that Versus recent dispute with DirecTV --and the threat of being pulled from approximately 30 million homes two days before the event-- is the principle reason for Zuffa postponing the event. But that doesn't explain why they are abandoning Youngstown, Ohio as a venue. October 10th is an open date for the Covelli Centre

Steve Cofield proposes a different hypothesis. Perhaps the Ohio Athletic Commission's decision to require weigh-ins both the day of and before the event was the reason Zuffa decided to move away from the Buckeye State.

WKR believes that the poor regional economy probably had something to do with the decision to flee Ohio. In March of 2009 the Northeast of Ohio reached the highest levels of unemployment in the past 15 years. In the months since March things have only gotten worse and Ohio's overall unemployment rate is approximately 11.2%. Youngstown is in even worse shape. Zuffa was trying to tap into the Cleveland, Pittsburgh, Youngstown, Akron region but these cities epitomize the rust belt economy an economy that is particularly suffering in this purgatory we call "a jobless recovery."

WEC 43 was suppose to be held in Covelli Centre, which seats about 7,000 people for a theater in the round setting.  The Covelli Centre would not comment on ticket sales when WKR contacted them. Could it be that the WEC was having trouble selling tickets? They were preparing an all out appearance blitz with popular UFC fighters, such as Chuck Liddell and local athletes. Clearly an attempt to garner greater interest in the card and perhaps an indicator of the low level of interest.

Of course we shouldn't forget that a main event fighter is out with an injury. But as WKR reader Steve W pointed out "Razor" Rob McCullough was more than ready to step in and try to avenge a previously loss to Donald Cerrone.

Update: Rob McCullough signed on to fight at WEC 44

In reality it was probably a combination of all the issues presented here that lead the WEC to try and find greener pastures.