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Mixed Martial Arts--- Zuffa Makes #2-Ranked Jon Fitch a Prelim Fighter Again
by Ivan Trembow

In his first fight after his excellent title match against Georges St. Pierre and his first fight since the UFC/AKA contract dispute, Jon Fitch has been relegated to being a preliminary fighter on the UFC's January 31st event, according to the UFC’s own web site.

This comes on the heels of Yushin Okami's fight on this Saturday's show being relegated to prelim status in favor of both Cheick Kongo versus a fighter making his UFC debut; and C.B. Dollaway versus a fighter making his UFC debut.

Not only is the Fitch fight being slotted below the Karo Parisyan main card bout (in Parisyan’s first fight since he pulled out of a fight at the last minute); not only is the Fitch fight being slotted below the Nathan Diaz-Clay Guida main card bout; but freaking Stephan Bonnar vs. Jon Jones is a main card fight while the #2-ranked welterweight in the world is in the prelims. Unbelievable.

I guess the UFC felt that they needed to send even more of a message to Fitch and his management than they already did. After all, when fear, intimidation, and making examples out of people is how you run your business, you have to follow through with severe consequences when someone doesn't immediately sign something that you ordered them to sign, right?

Being unfairly relegated to the prelims is something that Fitch has faced before... his first 5 UFC fights were all wins over Brock Larson, Josh Burkman, Thiago Alves, Kuniyoshi Hironaka, and Luigi Fioravanti, and all of them except the Hironaka fight were non-televised prelims.

Now, after three more UFC wins (for a total of eight), and one loss to St. Pierre (for a total of one UFC loss), Fitch is in the prelims again.

There is no justification for this. It is not justifiable for a fighter to match the UFC’s all-time consecutive wins record by beating eight strong opponents in a row, then lose to the #1 fighter in his weight class in a UFC Match of the Year candidate, and then be in the prelims in his next fight.

Labels: Mixed Martial Arts (MMA), Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC)

posted by Ivan Trembow at 5:35 PM

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