Recent cuts made by the UFC have likely gotten the message across to many fighters: The promotion doesn’t want guys who don’t entertain crowds.After all, just look at Jon Fitch.Despite carrying an impressive 14-3-1 record during his UFC career, he…
Recent cuts made by the UFC have likely gotten the message across to many fighters: The promotion doesn’t want guys who don’t entertain crowds.
Despite carrying an impressive 14-3-1 record during his UFC career, he’s generally been perceived by several MMA fans as a boring fighter to watch. Hence, Fitch was recently cut loose from the roster, along with 15 other lackluster performers.
English MMA star Dan Hardy isn’t surprised though, telling Pro MMA Now that the UFC must be disappointed with fighters who play it safe:
I know the UFC are getting rid of a bunch of guys, and I know that they are disappointed with the way that people are stepping into the Octagon. Maybe it’s just a shake-up, maybe they are just trying to show people that we are in the entertainment industry as well as a professional sport.
When people pay a lot of money for a ticket they want to see a performance, and some people are coming to get a pay check and it’s kinda disappointing.
Hardy is a clear case of what the UFC wants in “exciting” fighters, as “The Outlaw” has maintained his spot in the company’s ranks despite his rather pedestrian 6-4 record since joining the promotion in October 2008.
And even though Hardy has gone to decision six times in his past 10 fights, he’s had enough crowd-pleasing battles to keep himself employed.
It also doesn’t hurt much that he’s notched two bonuses for “Fight of the Night” and “KO of the Night” in his past three bouts.
Fitch currently has yet to announce where he’ll be fighting next, although his UFC name value should land him a job fairly quickly.
Meanwhile, Hardy has his sights set on the upcoming UFC on Fox 7 card at San Jose’s HP Pavilion. On April 20, The Outlaw starts off the main card as he attempts to gain his third straight win against fellow veteran Matt Brown, who will ride a 4-0 streak going into the match.
It didn’t take long for Jon Fitch to gain the interest of other mixed martial arts promotions following his release from the UFC earlier this week. Ali Abdel-Aziz, the vice president and matchmaker for World Series of Fighting, confirms to Bleacher Rep…
It didn’t take long for Jon Fitch to gain the interest of other mixed martial arts promotions following his release from the UFC earlier this week.
Ali Abdel-Aziz, the vice president and matchmaker for World Series of Fighting, confirms to Bleacher Report that they have begun preliminary discussions to potentially bring Fitch to the up-and-coming promotion in 2013.
While no formal offer has been made, Abdel-Aziz says that they have talked to Fitch’s management team since his release and are interested in the services of the former UFC welterweight contender.
“We would be honored to have Jon Fitch in our promotion,” said Abdel-Aziz speaking to Bleacher Report on Friday. “He is one of the top welterweights in the sport.”
Fitch’s UFC run came to a shocking end earlier this week when UFC president Dana White revealed that the former title contender had been released following his loss to Demian Maia at UFC 156 earlier this month.
Overall, Fitch went 14-3-1 with the UFC during his tenure with the promotion where he sat near the top of the welterweight division for much of his career.
His lone title shot came at UFC 87 in 2008 where Fitch lost to champion Georges St-Pierre. That story later became the subject of a documentary called Such Great Heights that followed Fitch from his training camp all the way to the title-fight loss to St-Pierre.
As soon as Fitch was released, many wondered how long it would take the American Kickboxing Academy welterweight to find a new home, and while Bellator president Bjorn Rebney said his promotion wasn’t interested in the services of the former UFC fighter, it appears other organizations are actively looking into signing him.
World Series of Fighting recently signed a multi-year, multi-show deal with NBC Sports Network to broadcast their shows. Their second card takes place on March 23 when two former UFC fighters square off as Andrei Arlovski meets Anthony Johnson in the main event.
Fitch has not been offered a contract yet with World Series of Fighting, but they are definitely interested in acquiring him if the right deal can be struck.
Damon Martin is a featured columnist for Bleacher Report and all quotes were obtained first hand unless otherwise noted.
In the wake of massive UFC cuts, Jon Fitch’s future was up in the air.His release came as a complete shock to MMA fans and likely to the fighter himself. After all, a top-10 fighter isn’t likely worried about being handed his walking papers after a sin…
In the wake of massive UFC cuts, Jon Fitch‘s future was up in the air.
His release came as a complete shock to MMA fans and likely to the fighter himself. After all, a top-10 fighter isn’t likely worried about being handed his walking papers after a single loss.
The Bellator cage figured to be where Fitch would find a home, but Bellator CEO Bjorn Rebney axed that idea prior to last night’s Bellator 90 event. The MMA Report has the details.
“I have a lot of respect for Jon [Fitch] and I have a lot of respect for anyone who has to courage to do what these guys do and the athletic ability to do what they do but we are not going to be signing Jon Fitch,” Rebney said.
Rebney is banking on developing fighters already under the Bellator banner. As we’ve seen in the past, Bellator has looked to make a big splash by signing ex-UFC/ex-Strikeforce fighters only to have the move be a flop.
Fitch’s name is certainly recognizable with the MMA crowds, but with a 1-2-1 record in his past four fights, Rebney would prefer to develop a fighter from within.
“We have a stacked welterweight division right now. We have a lot of guys that we are developing that we anticipate are going to be world class fighters and break the top ten,” Rebney said.
Perhaps some of Rebney‘s reasoning became evident after he explained that each free agent fighter is looked at on an individual basis.
“There is no hard and fast line in the sand with us. ‘King Mo’ Lawal came out of Strikeforce. He is one of my favorite fighters fighting in our organization. He is wildly exciting and awesomely talented. Ben ‘Killa B’ Saunders is another example and is fighting for us tonight. He came out and lost two straight in the UFC when we signed him. I just liking watching him fight. I love the knees and I love the clinch game and I thought he was exciting, so we signed him. There will be others like that. There will be other guys that get released from the UFC and it’s not a hard and fast rule.”
There’s some smarts in not signing Fitch, despite where he ranks in the welterweight division. If a former UFC fighter were to come in and run through Bellator‘s “stacked welterweight division,” it would make Rebney‘s product look bad.
And clearly Rebney wants exciting fighters, something Fitch isn’t known for.
I’m sure Fitch will rejoin the UFC’s ranks soon if he continues fighting on a regular basis, as he’s simply too good not to be in the Octagon at this point in his career. The AKA fighter admitted in 2012 that he needed to be more exciting and hopefully he continues to add some flare to his grinding style.
As for Bellator, they seem content with growing their company from within, and judging off how exciting the past few cards have been, that doesn’t seem as ludicrous of a thought as it used to be.
The fight game can be an unforgiving creature.Athletes losing their jobs is simply part of the process, and with new talent emerging and with competitors failing to fend off the rising tide, there will be those fighters who are pushed aside as the mach…
The fight game can be an unforgiving creature.
Athletes losing their jobs is simply part of the process, and with new talent emerging and with competitors failing to fend off the rising tide, there will be those fighters who are pushed aside as the machine moves on. Surely it can be a difficult thing to swallow, and the cliche of “it’s business; not personal” does little to soften the blow. But promotions releasing fighters from their rosters is a stone cold aspect of the fight game that will never change.
In mixed martial arts, there has always been a natural “weeding out” process inside the cage. When a fighter fails to perform up to the standards which landed them the position in the first place, the shadow of a hovering axe looms overhead. The saying “you are only as good as your last fight” gets tossed around in MMA with the frequency of 4 oz. leather, and while the phrase is overused, it doesn’t mean the words do not ring true. That being said, some times those lines become blurred, and what constitutes a “good fight” is not easily determined.
With the UFC’s recent string of cuts and with President Dana White telling the media in Anaheim that there is still more blood to be spilled, the sport’s biggest promotion sent a message to the fighters on their roster. The biggest question lingering is exactly what that message is and what implications it will have on how fighters approach their bouts in the future.
UFC Proving to Be No Fan of the Grind
It is common practice for the UFC to trim their roster in the aftermath of events. But when the news hit earlier this week that former No. 1 welterweight contender Jon Fitch had been released, it kicked up dust in all corners of the MMA community.
Following Thursday’s press conference for UFC 157, White addressed the situation surrounding Fitch’s release from the company. Whether you agree with White’s reasoning or buy in to the idea that the AKA staple is an expensive fighter on the decline, it doesn’t change the fact that White and Co. saw the 34-year-old as expendable.
White was quick to dismiss the notion that Fitch had been released for anything other than performance, but nevertheless, the additional details he offered and the tidbits of information he laid out this week surrounding other fighters and their respective styles, may provide the best “tell” in the situation at hand.
Fitch’s fighting style has never been one that fans have clamored over. The former Purdue University wrestling standout has found success inside the Octagon working behind a grinding, wrestling-heavy attack. It was an effective approach that resulted in Fitch earning one of the highest winning percentages in UFC welterweight history, but one that created a stigma of sorts that hovered over him at all times.
The point at hand becomes stronger when you consider White’s recent comments concerning Clay Guida. Where “The Carpenter” was once one of the most beloved fighters on the roster, the Chicago-native’s most recent showings appear to have put him out of favor with the UFC boss. Following an awful showing against Gray Maynard in Atlantic City that saw Guida refuse to engage for the entirety of the five round affair and a “lay and pray” performance against HatsuHioki at UFC on Fox 6, one of the UFC’s most fan-friendly fighters now finds himself lingering somewhere in the cold distance.
At the post-fight press conference following his loss to Maynard, the Jackson/Winkeljohn-trained fighter attempted to explain his change in approach. Guida said he was tired of getting beaten up for the sake of exciting fights and refused to stand in front of the powerful lightweight for the sake of an entertaining scrap. Instead, Guida attempted to work a game plan his team believed would improve his chances of winning. While that approach played out to terrible reviews, can we really blame Guida for not wanting to eat bombs from “The Bully?”
But therein lies the problem of perception. The blurred lines between the entertainment business and the authenticity of sports as a whole become an issue when simply winning isn’t enough. Guida lost the fight with Maynard and ultimately won his tilt with Hioki, but watching the 31-year-old sit awkwardly at the end of the dais at the post-fight presser told the bigger story. Where he could once do no wrong, Guida has now put himself under the microscope.
Whether you call it the “hot seat” or an unfavorable position, White questioning what happened to the way you used to fight is never a good thing.
The UFC boss also mentioned this week that Matt Riddle “used to be exciting,” before giving a tepid review of the takedown-heavy approach he’s taken as of late. But what is a middle-tier welterweight to do? Winning is the only means to guarantee continued employment, but winning “ugly” raises the ire of the man holding the axe.
Big Name Fighters On the Chopping Block?
In the fight business, a high profile and a strong connection to the promotional fan base is typically enough to keep the all mighty pink slip out of your general area. This may no longer be the case in the UFC.
During White’s media scrum where he addressed the Fitch situation, the UFC head honcho also mentioned Urijah Faber as another fighter who could be coming to the end of the road. With Faber’s current contender status in the bantamweight division and his history of being the poster boy for the lighter weight classes, the news of a possible cut this weekend was surprising. But if you take what White said about Fitch being an expensive fighter on the downside of his career at face value, the former WEC featherweight champion’s potential release could fit the new mold.
While Fitch’s release may have been shocking in the moment, the idea of the UFC cutting high profile fighters on a skid, could be the biggest news of all. When you look at the recent turn of events for some of the UFC’s most recognizable stars, it brings plenty of questions and pressure into their foreseeable futures.
White explained that Fitch had gone from being the No. 1 contender to ranked ninth in the rankings and former light heavyweight champion Rashad Evans appears to be on a similar trajectory. After losing to champion Jon Jones at UFC 145 and a dreadful showing against Antonio Rogerio Nogueira at UFC 156, “Suga” has fallen to the back in the heated race for contention in the 205-pound weight class. Much like Faber, the former TUF winner has the talent to always be one or two fights away from another shot at the title, but if Evans can’t find a way to stop his current backslide, it is hard to imagine the UFC shelling out top dollar to put Evans on a preliminary card.
It is premature to think fighters who carry a profile the likes of Evans and Faber will be cut from the fold in a hasty fashion, but it could certainly be a turn the UFC takes in the near future. White stated there were still a 100 more cuts to make with a full schedule of events on the docket over the next several months. It should come as no surprise if those cuts come in bulk and a few big names are pared from the roster.
(The relevant ranting starts around the 20 minute mark, but scroll back to the 12:40 mark if you want to see White basically have a mental breakdown when discussing Jon Fitch.)
When the UFC announced that their latest batch of mass firings included none other than former #9 ranked welterweightJon Fitch, the MMA community responded somewhat alarmingly to say the least. When Dana White stated that the decision came as a result of Fitch’s price tag being too high — at a paltry 66K no less — it revealed a bigger problem that could be looming on the horizon for the UFC: Overspending. As BG pointed out, multiple television deals and decreasing pay-per-view buys could at least be partly to blame for the UFC’s recent string of…let’s just call them frugal decisions.
But as it turns out, Fitch & Co.’s departure is just the beginning. Oh yes, a great deluge of firings is headed our way, Potato Nation, one consisting of up to 100 UFC fighters. And if you think the first name that Dana White would place on the potential chopping block would be one of the Shane Del Rosarios, Keith Wisniewskis, or Leonard fucking Garcias* who are currently winless in the promotion, well you just don’t know how The Baldfather thinks. Believe it or not, former WEC champion Urijah Faber was the first to be mentioned as in danger of losing his job with a loss at UFC 157. When asked if his “down the ladder” argument in relation to Fitch applied to guys like Faber, White was characteristically frank (24:50):
Could be Saturday [that he’s cut]. You never know, There’s over 100 guys. We’re heavy.
The argument to cut Faber instead of Fitch already makes sense when considering both fighter’s records in the promotion (Fitch: 13-3-1, Faber: 2-2), and that argument only gains more momentum should Faber lose to Ivan Menjivar — who he is currently a 3-to-1 favorite over — tomorrow. But from a business standpoint, releasing as hot a commodity as Faber (or fighters like him) into the arms of “Viacom MMA” seems like promotional suicide, does it not?
(The relevant ranting starts around the 20 minute mark, but scroll back to the 12:40 mark if you want to see White basically have a mental breakdown when discussing Jon Fitch.)
When the UFC announced that their latest batch of mass firings included none other than former #9 ranked welterweightJon Fitch, the MMA community responded somewhat alarmingly to say the least. When Dana White stated that the decision came as a result of Fitch’s price tag being too high — at a paltry 66K no less — it revealed a bigger problem that could be looming on the horizon for the UFC: Overspending. As BG pointed out, multiple television deals and decreasing pay-per-view buys could at least be partly to blame for the UFC’s recent string of…let’s just call them frugal decisions.
But as it turns out, Fitch & Co.’s departure is just the beginning. Oh yes, a great deluge of firings is headed our way, Potato Nation, one consisting of up to 100 UFC fighters. And if you think the first name that Dana White would place on the potential chopping block would be one of the Shane Del Rosarios, Keith Wisniewskis, or Leonard fucking Garcias* who are currently winless in the promotion, well you just don’t know how The Baldfather thinks. Believe it or not, former WEC champion Urijah Faber was the first to be mentioned as in danger of losing his job with a loss at UFC 157. When asked if his “down the ladder” argument in relation to Fitch applied to guys like Faber, White was characteristically frank (24:50):
Could be Saturday [that he’s cut]. You never know, There’s over 100 guys. We’re heavy.
The argument to cut Faber instead of Fitch already makes sense when considering both fighter’s records in the promotion (Fitch: 13-3-1, Faber: 2-2), and that argument only gains more momentum should Faber lose to Ivan Menjivar — who he is currently a 3-to-1 favorite over — tomorrow. But from a business standpoint, releasing as hot a commodity as Faber (or fighters like him) into the arms of “Viacom MMA” seems like promotional suicide, does it not?
Sure, Faber’s on the downside of his career and is far from the most consistent fighter in the UFC, but we’re talking about one of the WEC’s biggest stars here, one who has only dropped decisions to the bantamweight champion and, well, the other bantamweight champion. We’d like to argue about the significance of Faber’s placement on the UFC’s official bantamweight rankings list (he is currently ranked #2), but that debate belongs right up there with “has _____ earned his title shot?” on the list of pointless arguments to be had in today’s MMA landscape.
While we understand the UFC’s need to cut back financially in the face of falling profits, their justification for cutting or keeping a fighter could not be any more nonsensical. I say this with all due respect to the fighters I’m about to mention, but you mean to tell me that it makes sense to cut guys like Faber and Fitch ahead of guys like George Roop, Matt Grice, Nam Phan, and Tiequan Zhang?
Although Bellator has stated that they aren’t interested in Fitch (which we’re calling bullshit on right here and now), they’d have to be insane not to snatch up a name like Faber were he to be released. And while Faber may not be at a championship level in the UFC anymore, the combination of his name and some of Spike TV’s relentless UFC counter-programming could easily snatch up those viewers who don’t feel like shelling out fifty dollars every other weekend for a UFC PPV. For a guy that prides himself on devouring the competition, White/the UFC would be doing just the opposite with a move like this.
Then again, Dana White runs the biggest MMA promotion in the world and I am currently eating a leftover ham sandwich in my underwear, so what the hell do I know?
*I understand that Garcia holds victories over Nam Phan and Allen Berube, but the former was the result of horrendous judging and the latter happened in 2007. So yeah, winless.
(Fitch finds himself on the wrong end of a Fitch’ing against Demian Maia at UFC 156. Photo via Getty Images)
In the wake of Jon Fitch‘s surprise firing during the Great UFC Bloodletting of February 2013, even die-hard Fitch-haters criticized the move. As the general argument goes, how the hell are you going to cut a fighter who’s one of the ten greatest welterweights in the world by your own rankings, and whose last victory over Erick Silva was a Fight of the Night performance that proved he still has greatness left in him?
“Jon Fitch was ranked number nine, OK, however you want to look at that, he’s ranked number nine, whether it’s right or wrong or the rankings are bullshit or whatever. Ranked number nine right now. Now, this isn’t a case where Jon Fitch was ranked No. 9, No. 7, No. 6, No. 4, No. 2 and then we cut him. He was ranked No. 1, fought for the title and then he was ranked No. 2. He was ranked No. 3, 6, 7, and now he’s 9. That’s called the downside of your career. He’s on the downside…
“He had a draw, then a loss, right, then a win, then a loss. It’s good, he got more money. He got Fight of the Night because it takes two guys to do that. Right? If Erick Silva’s wrestling wasn’t right there, that wouldn’t have been Fight of the Night. At the end of the day, when you really break it down, who did Erick Silva beat? This was Erick Silva’s first real big fight and big test. And it was a damn good fight. That’s called the downside. He’s not buzzsawing through guys, he’s not doing a [Johny] Hendricks. So it’s not like Jon Fitch was on this incredible fucking winning streak and ‘the greatest fucking welterweight in the history of the world and a fucking Hall of Famer. The guy’s never won a fucking title in his life.”
In other words, Fitch is #9 with a down-arrow, and Erick Silva was never that accomplished to begin with, though Silva nevertheless deserves all the credit for how good that fight was. [*I promise this is not a Scanners gif*] But let’s get back to the more important issue: That Jon Fitch, who makes $66,000 to show, is “super fucking expensive.” Please take a moment to realize what an absolute joke your favorite sport is. Ben Fowlkes puts it best on MMAJunkie:
(Fitch finds himself on the wrong end of a Fitch’ing against Demian Maia at UFC 156. Photo via Getty Images)
In the wake of Jon Fitch‘s surprise firing during the Great UFC Bloodletting of February 2013, even die-hard Fitch-haters criticized the move. As the general argument goes, how the hell are you going to cut a fighter who’s one of the ten greatest welterweights in the world by your own rankings, and whose last victory over Erick Silva was a Fight of the Night performance that proved he still has greatness left in him?
“Jon Fitch was ranked number nine, OK, however you want to look at that, he’s ranked number nine, whether it’s right or wrong or the rankings are bullshit or whatever. Ranked number nine right now. Now, this isn’t a case where Jon Fitch was ranked No. 9, No. 7, No. 6, No. 4, No. 2 and then we cut him. He was ranked No. 1, fought for the title and then he was ranked No. 2. He was ranked No. 3, 6, 7, and now he’s 9. That’s called the downside of your career. He’s on the downside…
“He had a draw, then a loss, right, then a win, then a loss. It’s good, he got more money. He got Fight of the Night because it takes two guys to do that. Right? If Erick Silva’s wrestling wasn’t right there, that wouldn’t have been Fight of the Night. At the end of the day, when you really break it down, who did Erick Silva beat? This was Erick Silva’s first real big fight and big test. And it was a damn good fight. That’s called the downside. He’s not buzzsawing through guys, he’s not doing a [Johny] Hendricks. So it’s not like Jon Fitch was on this incredible fucking winning streak and ‘the greatest fucking welterweight in the history of the world and a fucking Hall of Famer. The guy’s never won a fucking title in his life.”
In other words, Fitch is #9 with a down-arrow, and Erick Silva was never that accomplished to begin with, though Silva nevertheless deserves all the credit for how good that fight was. [*I promise this is not a Scanners gif*] But let’s get back to the more important issue: That Jon Fitch, who makes $66,000 to show, is “super fucking expensive.” Please take a moment to realize what an absolute joke your favorite sport is. Ben Fowlkes puts it best on MMAJunkie:
“You’re telling me that Fitch, who’s already had a better career than 90 percent of active welterweights, and who’s been with the same organization for more than seven years, has priced himself out of a job with $66,000 in show money? Seriously? Take away taxes, training expenses, his management’s cut, and all the other miscellaneous stuff that eats into a fighter’s pay, and that’s not a ton of take-home cash for a night of professional cage fighting. If that’s too much for a guy like Fitch, most other fighters should go ahead and start working on that law school application right now because the future is grim.”
Here’s something to consider: Would we even be having this conversation if the UFC’s pay-per-view numbers hadn’t fallen off last year, and the company had money to burn? Between all of the promotion’s television commitments — namely FOX stealing PPV-worthy fights for broadcast on free TV — as well as the UFC’s recent rush of international expansion, maybe the promotion is just over-leveraged. (You might have noticed that their end-of-night bonuses were lowered back to $50,000 apiece, another unexpected sign of belt-tightening.) No matter what the reasoning for the Fitch cut, it’s kind of an embarrassing admission for the UFC that a top-ten fighter who makes $66k to show has now become too expensive. I mean, what’s next — a freeze on no-show jobs for ex-champions?
“Viacom’s got plenty of money. Viacom MMA isn’t hurting for cash. There’s a lot of other places this guy can go and make some money…[Fitch] will end up at Bellator or one of these other organizations and he will win a world title. He’ll end up there and he’ll smash every single guy over there and he’ll be a champ. A guy goes outside, wins some fights, has some impressive runs and then comes back…the response that Jon Fitch has had (from fans) is awesome. I’m glad that many people are behind him and support him. That’s not a bad thing. Good for him. But I can tell you this: Jon Fitch isn’t cheap. Viacom MMA has some money, so he can go out on the free market right now and find out what he’s worth.”
“I have a lot of respect for Jon [Fitch] and I have a lot of respect for anyone who has to courage to do what these guys do and the athletic ability to do what they do but we are not going to be signing Jon Fitch…We have a stacked welterweight division right now. We have a lot of guys that we are developing that we anticipate are going to be world class fighters and break the top ten. We want to keep guys busy. We want to keep guys inside the cage and we have a plan in terms of the next year and who is going to be a part of the tournaments and it’s just not the time…
There is no hard and fast line in the sand with us. ‘King Mo’ Lawal came out of Strikeforce. He is one of my favorite fighters fighting in our organization. He is wildly exciting and awesomely talented. Ben ‘Killa B’ Saunders is another example and is fighting for us tonight. He came out and lost two straight in the UFC when we signed him. I just [liked] watching him fight. I love the knees and I love the clinch game and I thought he was exciting, so we signed him. There will be others like that. There will be other guys that get released from the UFC and it’s not a hard and fast rule.”
In short, top ten welterweight Jon Fitch is too expensive for the UFC, and not quite exciting enough for Bellator. If he’s lucky, maybe World Series of Fighting will let him fight the winner of Burkman vs. Simpson later this year. Jesus Christ, man, condolences.
Recent cuts made by the UFC have likely gotten the message across to many fighters: The promotion doesn’t want guys who don’t entertain crowds.
