WEC Matchmaker Talks WEC 48

WEC matchmaker Sean Shelby was understandably pleased following last Saturday’s WEC 47 in Columbus, Ohio. Exciting bouts abounded, which created particular buzz that Monday morning. Shelby spoke with the Sherdog Radio Network’s “Savage Dog Show” on Monday about the night and looked toward the promotion’s next effort, its first pay-per-view ever with WEC 48 on April 24 in Sacramento, Calif. Here are some highlights:

On WEC 47’s overall card: “The card was fantastic. It really was. It was one of those cards I wish that everyone could've seen all the fights. All the people there (who) saw it live, I think they were pretty entertained and I wish we could've gotten all the prelims on television.

On the Casimir-Lamas bout: “That was just incredible. I was a big fan of Bendy Casimir. It was just unfortunate in his first fight he had to come in against a guy like Lamas. I told Lamas that he's kind of had a habit of fighting down to the level of his opponents. Before the fight I said look you gotta go out there and put as much as distance between and your opponent as possible and you go in there and go for the knockout. Don't just go for the decision. And man, that was one of the most beautiful flying knees I've ever seen and then the mouthpiece coming flying out towards the camera made it a little bit more dramatic. It was pretty awesome.”

Is Jorgensen in the running for a title shot?: “A lot of people are making the case for Jorgensen. Jorgensen, how many fights does he have? He's moved into double-digit wins now, but I'd like to see him develop a little bit more. Just a little bit. I still wouldn't have a problem giving him a title shot. I just don't think he's reached his potential yet.

On the upcoming WEC 48 pay-per-view: “Actually putting this card together was actually kind of fun. Sometimes it's a little bit laborious. But this one was really fun. Obviously the fights all have to be relevant. They all have to be competitive. But it was all a right-place, right-time sort of thing and I was able to put an all-star card together. It was strange how it all fell together. It was a little bit easier than I thought it would be. Most of the guys that are coming in for this card are multi-time veterans of the WEC. But then I'm bringing in two guys that haven't been in the WEC before. One is going to be the “Korean Zombie” (Chan Sung Jung), who obviously is proven in international competition. He's a fantastic fighter and that's going to be fun to have him on the card and then there's another kid out there. Actually he's one of the best 135ers no one's ever heard about and that's Demetrious Johnson. He's probably going to be on that card as well. On paper this is probably one of my favorite cards in the year and a half I've been doing this.”

On the WEC fighter pay discussion: “It is what it is. This isn't my first rodeo. We all came up together -- Joe and I and the whole UFC crew. We did this once before. This is a slightly different model than the UFC because UFC started out on PPV and then went to television and we're doing it the exact opposite. This is a necessary step in the evolution of the lighter weight classes. I'm confident it'll all work out. It's not one of those things where we're going to do this, I'm sure you've heard Reed talk about this a million times, we're not going solely to pay per view. But there's one thing you can't deny and that's everyone on this card is as good talent wise as anybody else that's ever fought on pay per view. I've got no problems with this.”

On the pending 125-pound division: “You can expect it. The question is when. Even I don't have a concrete answer on that. It's really an answer of simple math. If you want deep division, you only have so much space and you only have so many spots. So if you divide it one more time, you're taking time away and you're taking spots away from these other divisions. I have a list a mile long of guys I want to bring into the WEC that I can't. It kills me. In already extremely established weight classes. You bring in the 125ers right now I have even less opportunity to do that. It's just one of those things. It's going to work itself out and the WEC is still growing, but I think what people forget is this model we're running on now is less than a year old since we made the decision just to go to all lighter weight classes. We made extreme strides but we're still building. We have a great product but we're still building. I think 125ers are one of the last frontiers.”

On James Toney’s anticipated UFC debut: “It's not freak show to me because it's not like a guy has been hitting a baseball his whole life and saying, ‘Hey lets give him a fight,’ or a comedian (and we’re saying), ‘Let’s throw him in there.’ No, this guy was competing in one of the aspects of mixed martial arts his whole life. It's the same like Brock Lesnar. People were calling him a freak show. He's been wrestling since he was a little kid. He just chose to specialize in one aspect of mixed martial arts. Then he had two years of specialized training before he got into the UFC. (It) wasn't a freak show. I don't think it's a freak show. I'm sure he's going to be matched up with somebody on a similar skill level and we'll see what he's got. Remember he's a pro boxer. No one would say that if we brought in an amateur wrestler who's been doing this his whole life or whatever five-time world jiu-jitsu champion. Nobody said that about B.J. (Penn). Remember B.J. specialized mostly in jiu-jitsu before he got into the UFC. I think the problem is because he is a boxer and people in MMA, not necessarily looking down on that, give him much less of a chance than if he was a wrestler. The fact is the guy was a professional combat athlete for most of his life. One of the world's best at what he did and I'm intrigued. Again, it's not a comedian. It's not a baseball player. It's not something on that level. A professional combat athlete. We'll see.”