WEC parts ways with cage announcer Joe Martinez

Popular cage announcer Joe Martinez and World Extreme Cagefighting have parted ways, effective immediately.

Martinez confirmed the parting Monday with MMADieHards.com.

The bilingual Martinez had five fights left on his contract through the end of 2010, but will not complete it.

He also is a boxing ring announcer for Golden Boy’s Spanish production “Solo Boxeo Tecate” (Just Boxing Tecate). He is signed to that weekly event, which takes place Fridays and runs on TeleFutura, through 2011.

Martinez had been with the promotion since WEC 17 in October 2005.  But he was noticeably absent for WEC 48: Aldo vs. Faber, as was the WEC branding.  It was attributed to the preliminary matches being on Spike TV and not the WEC’s usual home of Versus.  Spike TV is associated with Zuffa’s UFC brand.

For that event, Bruce Buffer was the voice inside the cage.  Dana White acted as promoter, while Mike Goldberg and Joe Rogan handled the play-by-play and color commentary, respectively.   It was the WEC’s first pay-per-view event.

It led to rampant speculation that the UFC might roll the WEC into its umbrella, effectively doing away with the brand.  Zuffa had run the WEC as a distinct operation up until that event, which is different than what it did after purchasing the PRIDE organization.  Zuffa chose to dissolve PRIDE, divvy up fighter contracts and utilize video footage.

White said after WEC 48 that there is no immediate plan to roll the WEC into the UFC, citing Zuffa’s contentment with the Versus deal.  But Martinez was not being offered a contract into 2011 even though WEC brass expressed a strong desire to keep him.

“I regret that what has been a great relationship is coming to an end,” Martinez said. “Unfortunately, the best decision for my family at this time is to keep my commitment to Golden Boy.”

From a scheduling standpoint, Martinez would only have had potential conflicts with WEC events that took place on Saturdays, with Friday weigh-ins.

“I was more than willing to work around the possible conflicts,” said Martinez. “But another main factor was my work within other areas of combat sports. While I do not feel my association with a Spanish-language boxing production has any crossover, it appears to have been a big issue.”

Martinez last month began hosting “Are You Ready” on the MMA DieHards Radio Network.  The author is his co-host.

“I would like to continue to grow the radio show and remain connected to MMA, which is a real passion of mine,” Martinez said. “Being involved with the WEC has been a great experience, and I have built wonderful relationships with many of the great people there, from the fighters to the production crew. I most certainly remain a huge supporter.”