We’ve all heard the jokes about Jon Fitch. How watching Fitch fight is something like watching paint dry or watching grass grow. Dana White even gets in on the jokes from time to time, needling the welterweight for his dry fighting style on Twitter.
It’s all a bunch of nonsense, of course. I love exciting fights as much as the next guy, and I think they’re a valid thing when you’re trying to bring in new fans. But there’s one thing more important than being exciting or cutting Chael Sonnen promos or wearing outlandish clothes during your walkout: winning.
That’s the bottom line, really. You can be the most exciting fighter in the world, and it might buy you a few extra losses in the UFC before they send you packing. But it’s not going to help you stick around forever as you rack up loss after loss. Winning is the only thing that keeps you employed, and it doesn’t matter what it looks like.
Here’s Fitch chiming in on the criticism from the fans while talking to Duane Finley:
“I haven’t been paying enough attention to the sport to know what other guys are doing or if, in fact, the squeaky wheel is getting the grease,” Fitch said. “I don’t know who is squeaking or not. My daily life consists of me training my ass off and spending time with my family. I don’t go outside that bubble. Going to the UFC in New Jersey was the first time I had done anything like that in a while. I’m in the fight environment if I’m fighting or if I have a teammate fighting. Otherwise, I don’t pay much attention.
“If people think that I’m not beating people up in there, all they have to do is look at my opponent’s face after the fight. If I’m not doing work in there, then how did their face get so f***ed up?”
Fitch has a point. He’s got a style that doesn’t endear itself to meathead audiences, but it’s effective. And think about it this way: Randy Couture has been using the same style for years, only it’s a stand-up version that’s heavily based on wrestling, and he’s lauded as a hero while Fitch gets booed out of the building every time he steps in the cage. How is that fair?
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