Gina Carano in WEC?

Yesterday UFC held a press conference yesterday in Toronto to promote the upcoming Georges St. Pierre/BJ Penn fight. The reason they had it in Toronto is they're trying to put pressure on the Ontario Athletic Commission to legalize MMA. During the press conference, Dana White told reporters that he was willing to bring Gina Carano into the WEC. There is video of the press conference on Youtube but the audio isn't audible but the reporters all cheered. White first said this last week on ESPN in a very offhand manner as part of an hour long interview. Michael David Smith of AOL Fanhouse unearthed the comment and this was the first opportunity that reporters had to address the issue directly. But Dana White didn't say anything about a women's division. Here's the direct quote:


“Gina Carano is a star, I think she’s talented. I think she’s got all the tools, so what I’m willing to do is bring Gina into the WEC. We could do fights whenever there’s a challenger for Gina. That’s how I’ll test the waters and see how it goes,”

Since fans have a bad habit of jumping to conclusions, I am going to put this in the proper context. Sorry if it rains on someone's parade. Dana White realizes that if he's not interested in Gina Carano, he looks like a fool because that's a lot of money to leave on the table. But that doesn't mean he wants to start a women's division. Could it happen? Sure. Will it happen? Well, there are a lot of hurdles to jump over. Gina Carano and the other EliteXC fighters are still under contract. Last Monday's scheduled auction of the EliteXC assets was cancelled by Showtime because it appears that the fighter contracts are non transferrable. Meanwhile, Terry Trebilcock of King Of The Cage said last week that EliteXC management (mostly new CEO Chuck Champion) are still in talks with CBS. So it is possible that EliteXC may resurface on CBS with Trebilcock in charge. My gut feeling is that's what will happen. If CBS wasn't interested in MMA, they would have said that already. I prefer that scenario anyway because there are several female fighters in different weight classes under contract to EliteXC. Trebilcock is interested in women's MMA, not just Gina Carano. Dana White is only interested in Gina. If she's not available, don't expect any other women fighters in WEC. Stay tuned for future developments.