After the unfortunate confirmation that Thiago Alves wouldn’t be able to fight Jon Fitch Saturday, because he hasn’t been medically cleared to fight, that ‘ah sh-t’ news, was alleviated by the fact that it looks like the welterweight is going to be okay. Of course, the other dude to be most affected by this is Fitch, who likely trained his ass off for the extremely important rematch. All that work and no play?
Well according to follow up reports this AM, things are looking up for Fitch and his fans, as MMA Weekly and MMA Junkie are reporting that Ben Saunders has agreed to fight the highly regarded welterweight Saturday. Hallelujah! Saunders, like Alves, can slug it out, and his knees are clearly of the ‘do not clinch with this guy’ variety. It’s true that Saunders hasn’t taken out elite welterweights like Alves has (Josh Koscheck, Matt Hughes etc), but still, this should be a sweet match-up.
Now, of course, Saunders was scheduled to fight Jake Ellenberger at UFC 111, so it’s not like the former TUF competitor is stepping up without having had a full camp. So, does that mean Ellenberger ends up getting the royal shaft? According to the Junkie report, Ellenberger will receive his show and win money for getting tossed aside. We’re sure Ellenberger would have rather fought, of course, but getting paid to sit and watch the bouts Saturday isn’t such a raw deal. Sounds like heaven to us (minus the training camp, which we wouldn’t be able to continue after day one, of course).