World Extreme Cagefighting has been very successful since they were purchased by Zuffa over a year ago. They have become a staple on cable network Versus and the organization is starting to earn a reutatio as the home of the best fighters in the smaller weight classes.

Of course, the WEC wants to maintain this momentum as vice president Peter Dropick discusses during an interview with Sam Caplan for CBSSports.com.

CBSSports.com: Are there any new plans for the WEC in 2008 that you can reveal?

Peter Dropick: We’re going on the road. We were based in Las Vegas at the Hard Rock during 2007. We’re taking the events on the road and we have our first event on the road in Albuquerque on Feb. 13, which we’ve announced. I have plans to look at a couple more markets outside of Vegas in 2008.

I still want to have some presence in Vegas but there are a few other markets we’re looking at. They range from Southern California, Northern California, Texas, Oklahoma, New Jersey and Florida. A lot of them are mid-markets (as) we’re not getting overly aggressive and thinking we can fill a coliseum, or something to the effect. So we’re being smart and looking at (which cities) are some of our top TV markets on Versus. We’re also looking at the hometowns of some of our top fighters and just general good MMA markets or fight towns, and Albuquerque is one of them.

While viewers can see WEC on Versus quite regularly, one of the complaints from fans is that they have seen all of the same fights repeatedly. They have been calling out for more live events.

Q: How many shows does the WEC plan to run in 2008?

A: It’s going to be a minimum of six fights. That’s what I have scheduled now and I could potentially add a few more to that. In addition to that we have the WrekCage taped program on Versus. That program will be a combination of fights that didn’t make our live broadcasts along with some of our best fights that have aired already. So we have eight WrekCage programs in 2008. That’s six live and eight WrekCage.

Since both WEC and UFC are owned by the same group, some fans have an opinion that the WEC is operating as the “minor leagues” for the larger organization. Dropick discusses this idea with Caplan.

Q: Very few fighters have been transferred from the UFC roster to the WEC roster. Jens Pulver and Leonard Garcia are the only fighters who I can really think of, and they only moved because the UFC didn’t have a 145-pound weight class. Might we see more UFC fighters transferred over to the WEC as you look to build out your roster?A: We’re not really crossing guys over. We’ve said this all along; this isn’t a farm system or a developmental league so we wouldn’t look to “bring a fighter down” because he didn’t perform in the UFC. Jens was a prime example of how we think this should work. He was fighting at ‘55 and said, “You know what, ‘45 is my natural weight class and there’s only one place to go. And that’s the WEC.” I think for opportunities like that we’d look at it but it’s not something where we’re going to be bouncing guys back and forth between organizations.

The WEC has a lot of exciting fighters and so far, have put on some great matches. Their fans can only benefit from their continued growth and new events.