Filed under: UFC
Jon Fitch and Thiago Alves are universally recognized as the second-best and third-best welterweights in mixed martial arts, so when they meet in the Octagon Saturday night at UFC 117, it will be a truly special fight. From a pure sporting standpoint, in terms of the quality of the competition, Fitch-Alves is a better fight than a lot of pay-per-view main events, and one of the 10 best fights in MMA so far this year.
And yet Fitch vs. Alves has been somewhat lost in the shuffle in the run-up to UFC 117. Chael Sonnen’s relentless trash talk toward Anderson Silva has swallowed up most of the pre-UFC 117 fight, and I’m even hearing from more fans who care about Matt Hughes vs. Ricardo Almeida and Roy Nelson vs. Junior dos Santos than I am for fans who are fired up about seeing Fitch fight Alves.
So why is a fight between two of the top three fighters in their weight class in the world not getting more attention?