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Thiago Alves, Jon Fitch, and a #1 UFC Welterweight ranking slot at stake

By Zach Arnold | August 5, 2010

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If you haven’t heard yet, the winner of Saturday night’s between Jon Fitch and Thiago Alves will fight the winner of the Georges St. Pierre/Josh Koscheck fight. So, what will happen if both Fitch and Koscheck win?

ARIEL HELWANI: “Jon, you were supposed to fight Thiago Alves in December, then March, and it seems as though he’s sort of making you sweat it out here because word is he’s not coming to the workout because he’s having some trouble making weight. have you heard about this?”

JON FITCH: “Yeah, I just found out a little bit ago that he’s struggling with some weight right now.”

ARIEL HELWANI: “How’s that make you feel?”

JON FITCH: “It’s laughable. I mean… he’s still got plenty of time so I’m not worried but I mean with all of everything that has happened with this fight, I mean… I can’t get any more stressed out about it. It’s… it is what it is and you know I have faith that he’s going to make weight.”

ARIEL HELWANI: “I heard you say recently that you’re going to wrap yourself up in bubble wrap and you hope that he does the same so that no one gets injured leading up to this point. Now, is this something else that you have to think about?”

JON FITCH: “No, I mean, we knew this was always a possible situation. He’s had issues in the past with making weight and he’s had a long layoff. So, all those factors together, we knew that there was a possibility that he was going to be overweight for this fight, but still he’s got time to make the weight and I’m sure he’s going to make the weight.”

ARIEL HELWANI: “We saw this past weekend, someone like DaMarques Johnson, he comes in at 172, has to give up 20% of his purse, but he ended up fighting Matthew Riddle. If Thiago Alves comes in at 172 or 173, will you take the fight?”

JON FITCH: “Uh, you know, that’s… pretty close, but I mean, I’m not looking for a scenario where you had like Matt Hughes and then 8 pounds. That’s pretty ridiculous. A pound, you know, it’s fairly forgivable, but if I don’t know, if he can’t make the weight at weigh-ins at Friday, I mean, I would still like him to make the weight before the fight sometime. So, if he doesn’t make at 4 o’clock on Friday, make it at 7 or 8 or 9 or Midnight, whenever, just make the weight.”

ARIEL HELWANI: “Do you think he should be still fighting at Welterweight?”

JON FITCH: “Uh, I mean, if you have this many issues of not making weight, I don’t know. They need to figure something out more than the 20% penalty because it doesn’t seem like that’s motivation enough for people because it seems like it keeps happening and it’s one thing that you know we’re a professional sport, you know, have a job to do and that’s part of the job, making weight.”

(snip)

ARIEL HELWANI: “Have you been surprised at perhaps that this fight has not received as much buzz as it warrants, considering the fact that it’s #2 versus #3? Do you think it has gotten enough of a promotional push?”

JON FITCH: “You know what? I think a lot of the fans have been giving this fight a lot of attention. I think a lot of people are talking about it. I think just the media tends to go towards the more vocal guys, which you know obviously Chael has been very vocal in this fight, so a lot of the media swarms on Chael but I mean from my understanding, from my Twitter, my Facebook, all my sites and everything, this is a huge fight and a lot of people are talking about this fight.”

ARIEL HELWANI: “Does that bother you, though, that the guys who talk more get more of the attention?”

JON FITCH: “No, I mean it is what it is and it’s where we’re at with the sport right now. Who knows what it’ll be in the future, but you know it is what it is. You can’t really get upset about it.”

Topics: Media, MMA, UFC, Zach Arnold | 6 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |

6 Responses to “Thiago Alves, Jon Fitch, and a #1 UFC Welterweight ranking slot at stake”

  1. 45 Huddle says:

    Fighters beware…. Being a Strikeforce Champion will not put you on the fast track to a UFC Title. Everybody thought Shields would get the next title shot if he beat Kampmann. I guess not. It surprised me as well. Fitch has earned his shot if he beats Alves. That is for sure.

    Lately the UFC has felt more sport like the way they are announcing #1 contender fights in advance. UFC has 2 of these fights.

    • Steve4192 says:

      Don’t count your chickens just yet.

      Dana has made a lot pre-fight promises that he failed to live up to. If Fitch & Kos both win, chances are that fight won’t happen. If Fitch wins via another boring decision while Shields gets a spectacular finish, I’d bet dollars to doughnuts that Fitch gets skipped over again. Finally, unless Alves wins in spectacular fashion, I suspect Dana will bust out the ‘ring rust’ argument and claim Alves needs to get another win before a rematch with GSP.

  2. Mr. Roadblock says:

    I’m not thrilled by this news. I’d much rather see the Kampmann/Shields winner get the shot.

    This means that it will cost $100 to see GSP’s next two fights. Both will be against guys he completely dominated in fights that weren’t all that (except for the Alves fight) interesting the first time around.

  3. Coyote says:

    Damm this new is so weird, i think UFC was gonna make the same case of Dan Hardy and jump this two guys.

    And, period, Thiago Alves last fight was in 2009…… and was ¿GSP?, he is gonna have the tittle shot again?????

    • Mr. Roadblock says:

      Exactly.

      I think you can make a strong argument that Fitch has done enough to get a rematch, even though I don’t want to see it.

      But if Alves wins this then he is getting back in with GSP after just one fight. I enjoyed the Alves/GSP fight more than any GSP fight since GSP/Serra II. But I’d like to see Alves do more before he gets the rematch.

      I’d actually much rather see Alves fight Kos again.

      Of the fights that could be made right now I’d most like to see:

      Fitch vs Shields
      Alves vs Kampmann

      Guy who looks the best winning fights GSP/Kos winner.

  4. Zack says:

    This is the best fight that no one seems to care about.

Comments to Zack

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