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Jon Fitch talks about new diet and thoughts heading into UFC 117 fight against Thiago Alves
By Zach Arnold | August 6, 2010
A passage from a good interview he did with Josh Gross of Sports Illustrated a couple of days ago:
JOSH GROSS: “How has [Alves] changed as a fighter since 2006, though?”
JON FITCH: “You know, His wrestling has definitely gotten better and he’s much bigger than he was when we first fought. He’s also matured much more mentally than I think. He’s much more of a man now today than he was four years ago.”
JOSH GROSS: “And you, how have you changed in that time?”
JON FITCH: “You know, I’ve developed my skill set all the way around. I’m much better striking, my wrestling’s even gotten better, I’m a black belt in jiu-jitsu now. I’ve even become a better athlete with the help of my strength & conditioning coach. Even my physique from changing to an organic diet has changed. You know, my weight doesn’t fluctuate as much as it used to in-between fights, you know, I’m always pretty close to that weight cut, that fight weight.”
JOSH GROSS: “When did you do that?”
JON FITCH: “It was last year, right before UFC 100, a couple of weeks before UFC 100 I started cleaning my diet up a lot and it made a huge difference. Like, the weight cuts comes very easily now, you know, it’s nothing to lose 15 pounds and put it back on with this diet.”
JOSH GROSS: “What was motivation for you to do that? I mean, there’s so many people out there with ideas on dieting and weight-cutting and the kind of nutritional balance you should have. A lot of guys use nutritionists. What was the motivation? Who was the person that or the people that inspired you to do that?”
JON FITCH: “Well, I mean, a lot of it was from my fiancé, she wrote a book and put me onto it, it’s called The Skinny Bastard. It basically just scared the crap out of me because it tells you know it talks about all the chemicals and all the nasty stuff in our food and the stuff you don’t even think about or realize and there’s a lot of things that we eat, that the Government allows us to eat, that are straight-up poisonous and it’s just something your body should never have in it. And then from that point I started doing more research and then reading more and studying more and just finding better, cleaner foods.”
JOSH GROSS: “Yeah. You’re 32 now. Have you noticed your body, it takes a little more time to recover? Have you noticed the wear and tear starting to take effect at all?”
JON FITCH: “Uh, no, I mean, people have been telling me this for a long time, ‘oh wait until you’re this age’ but no I mean I don’t notice a difference. I’ve been wrestling since the fourth grade and I’ve been in pain since the fourth grade, like there’s no change. It’s always felt the same. I’ve never felt like rosy and fresh and OK, like [I’ve] always been working hard and always been sore and always been in pain so I feel exactly the same now as I did when I was a little kid.”
JOSH GROSS: “A shower doesn’t feel right unless you get the burning sensation from the skin that’s not there?”
JON FITCH: “Yeah, I mean, it’s just, you know, day-to-day, it’s just regular life for me. I wouldn’t know what it would feel like any other way.”
JOSH GROSS: “Yeah, your fight in Oakland at the Oracle (Arena) on the 7th… A lot of people have made this sort of a Jon Fitch thing, you know, the decision, going the distance, you’ve gone 7 in a row now. Do you even concern yourself with that? Does that bother you or is that some of your thought process at all?”
JON FITCH: “No, I mean, I think I catch a lot of flack for it but you know there’s two guys in a fight and all I can say it’s very difficult to fight somebody who’s only fighting to survive.”
JOSH GROSS: “Do you see Thiago as someone who’s just there to survive or is he there to knock your head off?”
JON FITCH: “Yeah, he’s going to make things a lot easier for me because he’s going to be coming forward to try to knock my head off. He’s not somebody who’s going to go out there and try to win a moral victory.”
Topics: Media, MMA, UFC, Zach Arnold | 2 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |
Some fans are just never happy. They complain that the UFC doesn’t do #1 Contender fights enough. Now we have 2 official ones on one card and people still complain.
These guys are the #2  guys in the division. Both have already fought for the title so Zuffa does the smart thing and eliminates one of them from a title rematch with this fight.
I see some suggestions that these two guys shouldn’t get another title shot. If Fitch wins his line-up of wins is impressive enough for another title fight. And if Alves beats that, then he deserves it too.
Too much complaining me thinks.
I have no problem with Fitch getting a shot if he wins. But Alves needs to get more than one win under his belt IMO before being deserving of another shot. I’m OK with deposed champions getting a shot after one win, but not vanquished challengers.