So then you’ve got Karo (who just fought poorly), Alves, Burkman, and Hironaka in the next level. Still a drop off.

Pretty sure Fitch beat everyone on there besides Karo, so the only likely match up on that list would be Karo, even if he looked less than stellar in his last performance (at least he got the W).

Kos and Fitch are out of the same camp. Forget about them fighting one another. Diego’s moving to 155, so a rematch is out of the question. So then you’ve got Karo (who just fought poorly), Alves, Burkman, and Hironaka in the next level. Still a drop off.

Gono isn’t significantly lesser known than Fitch, who has many of his fights off TV against opponents I can barely remember. Fitch getting a title shot at WW is about like Marqhardt getting a title shot at MW. “Who?” is more likely the emotion that will be elicited, and thus the only way to change that is to keep Fitch on TV against strong opposition. Gono represents that.

To be fair to Fitch, he did get a decision over Diego Sanchez, one of the more marketable names from the division due to winning TUF Season 1 (at MW) in his last fight. Still, why not book him against a Josh Koscheck (or other high profile WW that’s not Serra, Hughes or St. Pierre) if one thinks he stills needs to gain more value? Gono is a step down from Sanchez in name value.

Gono isn’t significantly lesser known than Fitch, who has many of his fights off TV against opponents I can barely remember. Fitch getting a title shot at WW is about like Marqhardt getting a title shot at MW. “Who?” is more likely the emotion that will be elicited, and thus the only way to change that is to keep Fitch on TV against strong opposition. Gono represents that.

Gono gains a ton by winning. For Fitch it is, on paper, a solid name on his resume and a fairly safe win.

While Gono is a quality fighter, he is an unknown commodity to the UFC fanbase, which is the most important factor in this equation. If he loses to Gono, it may not be a horrible L from a hardcore fan perspective, but to the casual fan, it will look bad since this is a guy who does weird ring entrances and had a non-so-incredibly dominant submission win against a far less experienced McCrory in his UFC debut at UFC 78.

Gono gains a ton by winning. For Fitch it is, on paper, a solid name on his resume and a fairly safe win.

So are you suggesting Fitch wait to fight until the title shot? If so it’s going to be a long time.

No, not necessarily.

However, accepting a fight against Akihiro Gono is a waste of time for both men. What does the winner gain from it? Very little. You lose and you lose a lot.

Fitch vs. Parisyan needs to happen now. If there’s one lesson we’ve learned in MMA booking 2007, it’s that when you have a match ready at hand to book, book it. Don’t waste your time with pseudo-eliminator bouts. Book the best fight you can and make the money you can at the moment.

Title shot discussion is so overblown it’s become laughable. The UFC has exactly 5 titles with 250-300 contracted fighters. Yet discussion surrounding every matchup revolves around when the winner could be in the ‘title picture’ or earn his ‘title shot’. Let’s give it a rest already.

I agree one hundred percent. GSP is the next obvious title challenger no matter how Serra/Hughes turns out, so he should certainly wait until then. There’s so much talent at the top of that division that, simply put, he should wait. Look how long GSP had to wait for before getting a shot. He beat Trigg, Sherk, and Penn to fight for the title.

Title shot discussion is so overblown it’s become laughable. The UFC has exactly 5 titles with 250-300 contracted fighters. Yet discussion surrounding every matchup revolves around when the winner could be in the ‘title picture’ or earn his ‘title shot’. Let’s give it a rest already.

For the sake of the Welterweight title argument: the only title fights you’re likely to see for the 12 months will be contested between Matt Serra, Matt Hughes, Georges St. Pierre and rematches amongst the 3 (get used to it, UFC love$ rematches). So while we’re all waiting, let’s enjoy the division shake-up throughout the next year. Karo, Fitch, Diego, Koscheck and everyone else will have to face other opponents or go on vacation.