Fight fans may have seen the last of Jon Fitch in mixed martial arts (MMA) competition. The World Series of Fighting (WSOF) welterweight champion made his first title defense a successful one. He defeated former Strikeforce middleweight title holder Jake Shields by unanimous decision. After the fight, an emotional Fitch revealed the bout may have been […]
Fight fans may have seen the last of Jon Fitch in mixed martial arts (MMA) competition. The World Series of Fighting (WSOF) welterweight champion made his first title defense a successful one. He defeated former Strikeforce middleweight title holder Jake Shields by unanimous decision. After the fight, an emotional Fitch revealed the bout may have been […]
For the first time in his professional mixed martial arts (MMA) career, Jon Fitch will be defending a championship. The former Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) welterweight has made World Series of Fighting (WSOF) his home since June 2013.
Despite two rough submission losses to Josh Burkman and Rousimar Palhares, Fitch never gave up on his title aspirations. After defeating Yushin Okami in a title eliminator, Fitch was granted another championship bout. On April 2, 2016 Fitch captured his first major MMA title, when he defeated Joao Zeferino.
Fitch’s first title defense will be no easy task. The champion will meet grappling ace Jake Shields this Saturday night (Dec. 31) for WSOF’s New Year’s Eve event in New York City.
Fitch will compete inside The Theater at Madison Square Garden. He told Sherdog.com that he never imagined this would come to fruition.
“It’s pretty exciting to be fighting in New York. I didn’t think I’d expect to ever be in this position over the years, but to now be able to fight in Madison Square Garden is an excellent thing to put on my list of accomplishments. Defending my title there is going to be awesome.”
Shields is no stranger to championship gold. The Cesar Gracie Jiu-Jitsu fighter has held titles in Strikeforce, Elite XC, and Shooto. Fitch is well aware of the challenger’s strengths, but he’s confident in his own abilities. He said he welcomes the match-up.
“Jake is very systematic, but he’s very good within that system,” Fitch added. “He’s like a crocodile, where you know exactly what a crocodile will do; he’s going to snap at you and then death roll you, but it’s very hard to stop that from happening. I’m prepared for him, and I think I match up well against him style-wise. I think it’s going to be a great fight.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QNnP03xxzSU
For the first time in his professional mixed martial arts (MMA) career, Jon Fitch will be defending a championship. The former Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) welterweight has made World Series of Fighting (WSOF) his home since June 2013.
Despite two rough submission losses to Josh Burkman and Rousimar Palhares, Fitch never gave up on his title aspirations. After defeating Yushin Okami in a title eliminator, Fitch was granted another championship bout. On April 2, 2016 Fitch captured his first major MMA title, when he defeated Joao Zeferino.
Fitch’s first title defense will be no easy task. The champion will meet grappling ace Jake Shields this Saturday night (Dec. 31) for WSOF’s New Year’s Eve event in New York City.
Fitch will compete inside The Theater at Madison Square Garden. He told Sherdog.com that he never imagined this would come to fruition.
“It’s pretty exciting to be fighting in New York. I didn’t think I’d expect to ever be in this position over the years, but to now be able to fight in Madison Square Garden is an excellent thing to put on my list of accomplishments. Defending my title there is going to be awesome.”
Shields is no stranger to championship gold. The Cesar Gracie Jiu-Jitsu fighter has held titles in Strikeforce, Elite XC, and Shooto. Fitch is well aware of the challenger’s strengths, but he’s confident in his own abilities. He said he welcomes the match-up.
“Jake is very systematic, but he’s very good within that system,” Fitch added. “He’s like a crocodile, where you know exactly what a crocodile will do; he’s going to snap at you and then death roll you, but it’s very hard to stop that from happening. I’m prepared for him, and I think I match up well against him style-wise. I think it’s going to be a great fight.”
Jake Shields isn’t one to back down from a verbal battle, just ask Conor McGregor.
But as the former Strikeforce champion and UFC title contender told MMAjunkie Radio recently, he doesn’t feel the need to do any of that ahead of facing Jon Fitch for the WSOF welterweight title.
The two are set to meet at WSOF 34 on NBC New Year’s Eve.
“He’s a guy I’ve got a lot of respect for, so I’m certainly not going to talk any (expletive) on Fitch,” Shields said. “He’s a great welterweight. He’s had a great career, and I think he’s still talented, so I’m excited to be fighting him for this title. It’s one of those fights I expected to happen years ago. I always thought me and Fitch wold fight, both being NorCal guys, both being Top-5 welterweights most of our career, I’m surprised we haven’t fought before.”
Shields, who will turn 38 years old shortly after the fight, has not fought since August 2015 when he was submitted by Rousimar Palhares for the title. WSOF officials eventually stripped Palhares of the belt for holding on to the submission for too long.
Overall, Shields is 5-2 with a no-contest since a 2011 loss to Jake Ellenberger in the UFC.
Jake Shields isn’t one to back down from a verbal battle, just ask Conor McGregor.
But as the former Strikeforce champion and UFC title contender told MMAjunkie Radio recently, he doesn’t feel the need to do any of that ahead of facing Jon Fitch for the WSOF welterweight title.
The two are set to meet at WSOF 34 on NBC New Year’s Eve.
“He’s a guy I’ve got a lot of respect for, so I’m certainly not going to talk any (expletive) on Fitch,” Shields said. “He’s a great welterweight. He’s had a great career, and I think he’s still talented, so I’m excited to be fighting him for this title. It’s one of those fights I expected to happen years ago. I always thought me and Fitch wold fight, both being NorCal guys, both being Top-5 welterweights most of our career, I’m surprised we haven’t fought before.”
Shields, who will turn 38 years old shortly after the fight, has not fought since August 2015 when he was submitted by Rousimar Palhares for the title. WSOF officials eventually stripped Palhares of the belt for holding on to the submission for too long.
Overall, Shields is 5-2 with a no-contest since a 2011 loss to Jake Ellenberger in the UFC.
Despite the rumors that he could potentially be making his long awaited return at December 10’s UFC 206 from his home of Canada, legendary former welterweight champion Georges St. Pierre announced on yesterday’s (October 17, 2016) edition of The MMA Hour that his lawyer had terminated his contract with the UFC and that he was
Despite the rumors that he could potentially be making his long awaited return at December 10’s UFC 206 from his home of Canada, legendary former welterweight champion Georges St. Pierre announced on yesterday’s (October 17, 2016) edition of The MMA Hour that his lawyer had terminated his contract with the UFC and that he was now a free agent.
St. Pierre admitted that negotiations had stalled and that he had become tired of the drawn out process after once again finding his fire to compete. However, he didn’t say that he wasn’t going to once again fight, but he did say that he wasn’t sure what this free agency period would hold for him.
While it’s incredibly difficult to see “Rush” fighting outside of the world famous Octagon, that could indeed be a possibility once we are made aware of just how “free” St. Pierre is from his contract.
With that being said, we have compiled a list of seven fights that GSP could take if he indeed ends up leaving the world’s largest MMA promotion.
You have to have a thick skin to choose to pursue a career in mixed martial arts, an unforgiving sport where the difference between success and failure can narrow down to split-second decisions made in the heat of combat. Never is that more apparent than in a fighters professional debut, where deciding to bob when
You have to have a thick skin to choose to pursue a career in mixed martial arts, an unforgiving sport where the difference between success and failure can narrow down to split-second decisions made in the heat of combat.
Never is that more apparent than in a fighters professional debut, where deciding to bob when they should have weaved, or to attack when they should have defended, can result in a knockout or submission that leaves them questioning whether they have chosen the right path in life.
There’s a seemingly endless list of up and coming fighters who have called it quits at this formative stage of their career, hanging up their gloves for good with an 0-1 record, and in many cases they may have made the right call and spared themselves from further punishment.
However, there’s also been examples over the years of fighters who have had the courage to continue their mixed martial arts journey, either due to their unflappable self-belief, their passion for the sport, their desire to prove the doubters wrong, or simply because they had nothing else to fall back on.
In this article we’ll look at 12 inspirational examples of fighters who came up short in their MMA debuts, but overcame that early adversity and eventually fought their way onto the sport’s biggest stage to become UFC stars, and in some cases even world champions.
Andrei Arlovski
At M-1 MFC: World Championship in 1999, a 22 year-old fresh-faced, clean-shaven Andrei Arlovski made his MMA debut against one of the sports most infamous villains, Viacheslav Datsik who was also competing for the first time.
The fight turned out to be an exceptionally sloppy affair, with commentators Bas Rutten and Stephen Quadros giggling in bemusement at what they jokingly dubbed as ‘The Lunch Money School Brawl’ that was playing out in front of them.
Datsik wacky, unpredictable striking paid off midway through the first round though, as he launched his body weight behind a right hand that flattened Arlovski.
”If Arlovski gets up from this it’ll be shades of Dracula rising from the coffin,” Quadros declared as the fight was waved off, handing Datsik an unexpected highlight-reel KO finish.
Despite the brutal loss, if there’s one thing we’ve learned about ‘The Pitbull’ over the years it’s that there’s no quit in him, and he’d go on to become a UFC heavyweight champion, and is still ranked in the top 10 today, some 17 years after his debut.
As for Datsik, he’d go on to produce a losing record in the sport, but became notorious for his crazy antics, which would eventually lead to him being put in prison as well as spending time in a mental institution.
With rumors of a UFC sale abound and the prospect of longtime UFC President Dana White actually stepping down from his position actually possible, there may not be a better time than now to look back and reflect on all of the game-changing, evolving, and impactful changes White has made upon the UFC and the
With rumors of a UFC sale abound and the prospect of longtime UFC President Dana White actually stepping down from his position actually possible, there may not be a better time than now to look back and reflect on all of the game-changing, evolving, and impactful changes White has made upon the UFC and the sport of MMA as a whole.
However, this article is not the place to do that.
No, despite all of the absolutely positive and furthering changes, implementations, and improvements White has made during his nearly 20-year tenure with the UFC, he’s built up quite the long list of people in the sport that have angered him quite a bit.
For better or worse, some were right, some were wrong, and some of those people were able to mend the fence with the most powerful man in MMA. Others still remain on the boss man’s proverbial naughty list, and they may indeed never recover.
It’s been a wild ride for White, and it may or may not be close to being over. Let’s take a look back at the people in MMA that angered Dana White the most.
