Top Ten WEC Champions

On December 16, 2010, MMA fans lost a dear friend to a merger with the UFC. The WEC was an utter bastion of amazing fights for its entire nine-year existance. Here are the top ten champions of the WEC, based on their careers in and out of the blue Octagon.
Honorable mention: Scott Smith (17-8, 1 NC)
The Comeback Kid may not be the best technically, but he has always put on a great show and earned his nickname well, with comeback wins over Pete Sell at the TUF 4 finale and former Strikeforce MW champion Cung Le at Strikeforce: Evolution. Other notable victories include Benji Radach and Tim Kennedy. In the WEC he went 3-0, winning the Light Heavyweight title in the four-man tournament at WEC 17 and defending it at WEC 18 before vacating to fight in the UFC.
10. Chris Leben (25-6)
The Crippler is most well-known for being The Ultimate Fighter's original heel, well, him and Josh Koscheck, and for getting absolutely destroyed by Anderson Silva in the Spider's UFC debut. However, before TUF, he was the first WEC Middleweight Champion, defeating fellow TUF 1 alumnus Mike Swick. He vacated that title without defending it in order to sign on to TUF. Other notable wins include Yoshihiro Akiyama (whom he defeated just two weeks after his last fight) and former UFC MW contender Patrick Cote.
9. Karo Parisyan (19-6)
A former UFC star, Karo was MMA's first judo stylist to compete at a high level. His throws revolutionalized the ground game and almost earned him a title shot, had TUF 1 Middleweight winner Diego Sanchez not been in the way. Before that, he was the third WEC Welterweight champion, defeating Shonie Carter before defecting to the UFC. The only reason he is not higher on this list is because of his recently revealed anxiety issues which have forced him to be unable to fight, going 1-2 with one no contest over his last four.
8. Carlos Condit (25-6)
The Natural Born Killer is tied for second on all-time title defenses for the WEC, and who knows how many more he would have had, because the UFC took over the WEC's welterweight division after his third defense. In the black Octagon, he has a record of 3-1; while he had an early hiccup against Martin Kampmann (which just happened to be a Fight of the Year candidate on several sites), he ran off three straight wins, including one over Dan Hardy. His most notable win outside either promotion was over Frank Trigg.
7. Frank Shamrock (23-10)
The legend himself, Frank Shamrock, was a WEC champion as well as a Pancrase interim champion, the first UFC Light Heavyweight champion, and the first Strikeforce Middleweight champion. His lone title fight with the promotion was a win over Brian Pardoe, however, he later forfeited it to fight for fellow upstart California promotion Strikeforce. Notable wins include Bas Rutten, Enson Inoue, and Jeremy Horn. He currently works as a Strikeforce color commentator.
6. Mike Thomas Brown (24-6)
MTB cemented his WEC legacy when he proved that the California Kid, Urijah Faber, had weaknesses when he TKO'd the former champ at WEC 36, later defending the 145 strap twice over Leonard Garcia and Urijah again. However, he was stopped in his tracks by a relative newcomer named Jose Aldo. His most notable win outside the promotion was over Yves Edwards.
5. Jose Aldo (18-1)
The final WEC Bantamweight champion and first UFC bantamweight champion is this low on the list due to not having a true notable win outside of the WEC, therefore I still consider the jury out. However, he has been nothing but dominant inside the blue cage, with eight wins and no defeats, defending the 145 title twice over Urijah Faber and TUF 5 runner-up Manny Gamburyan. Only time will tell whether or not the Brazilian Cobra can stay the dominating course he has had over the much bigger UFC fighters who will undoubtedly drop down to 145 as a result of the merger.
4. Nick Diaz (23-7, 1 NC)
Nick Diaz was a competent UFC veteran, going 6-4 in the organization, and even had a win over former PRIDE Lightweight champion Takanori Gomi; unfortunately for him it was vacated because of a positive marijuana test afterwards. He is the current defending Strikeforce Welterweight champion as well. In the WEC, though, he was the first Welterweight champion, defeating former KOTC WW champ Joe Hurley, a title which he vacated without defending to fight in the UFC.
3. Gilbert Melendez (18-2)
El Nino began his career in the WEC, taking a fight against Greg Quan on that night's notice. No one suspected that Melendez would win by first round TKO. At WEC 10, he defeated Olaf Alonso, the promotion's first real star, by third-round knockout for the newly-created Lightweight strap. From there, he established his 18-2 record and became Sherdog's #2 Lightweight. His most notable wins have come over Clay Guida and Shinya Aoki.
2. Miguel Torres (38-3, though he says he has 12 wins from before the days of Sherdog, making him 50-3)
Tied with Carlos Condit for most title defenses in the WEC with three, he was the first great featherweight champion that the world could think of. After coming from a relatively unknown background of backwoods events in Indiana, he came to the WEC in style, winning by first round submission. He then proceeded to pick apart former champion Chase Beebe and later three others in an extremely exciting fashion, leading people to wonder if he would ever be defeated. He was, however, by Brian Bowles at WEC 42, then lost again at WEC 47 to future contender Joseph Benavidez.
And finally, number one: Urijah Faber (24-4)
The California Kid put up a GSP-level defense count of five in the WEC and was the first fighter to be considered "unbeatable". And what's even weirder is that he was always an extremely undersized bantamweight. It's almost like Fedor's run through the heavyweight division, only on a much smaller scale. While giving up a lot of fight-night weight to his opponents, he won those five defenses, including a win over current WEC featherweight champion Dominick Cruz. Now that he has dropped to 135, the chance to become a champion in two divisions is very much in front of him.