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By: Jamie Penick, MMATorch Editor-in-Chief
UFC President Dana White spoke with reporters on Thursday after the UFC 157 pre-fight press conference, and defended the UFC's surprising decision to cut Jon Fitch on Tuesday.
"He's super f***ing expensive," White said (transcribed by BloodyElbow.com). "He'll end up somewhere, and he'll come back. This is the sports business, and this is the way it happens. Viacom's got plenty of money. Viacom MMA isn't hurting for cash. There's a lot of other places this guy can go and make some money.
"[Fitch] will end up at Bellator or one of these other organizations and he will win a world title. He'll end up there and he'll smash every single guy over there and he'll be a champ. A guy goes outside, wins some fights, has some impressive runs and then comes back."
While Bellator seems like a realistic route for Fitch to go, given his history as a top flight welterweight and stellar overall record, it appears that door won't be opened to him. At least not right now.
Bellator CEO Bjorn Rebney spoke with TheMMAReport.com on Thursday and shut down talk of signing Fitch, saying the time isn't right to bring him on board.
"I have a lot of respect for Jon [Fitch] and I have a lot of respect for anyone who has to courage to do what these guys do and the athletic ability to do what they do but we are not going to be signing Jon Fitch," Rebney said flatly. "We have a stacked welterweight division right now. We have a lot of guys that we are developing that we anticipate are going to be world class fighters and break the top ten. We want to keep guys busy. We want to keep guys inside the cage and we have a plan in terms of the next year and who is going to be apart of the tournaments and it’s just not the time."
That's not to say Rebney and Bellator won't sign any of the fighters who are soon to be released from the UFC, but it will come on a case by case basis.
"There is no hard and fast line in the sand with us," Rebney said in reference to picking up fighters released from the UFC. "‘King Mo’ Lawal came out of Strikeforce. He is one of my favorite fighters fighting in our organization. He is wildly exciting and awesomely talented. Ben ‘Killa B’ Saunders is another example and is fighting for us tonight. He came out and lost two straight in the UFC when we signed him. I just liking watching him fight. I love the knees and I love the clinch game and I thought he was exciting, so we signed him. There will be others like that. There will be other guys that get released from the UFC and it’s not a hard and fast rule."
Penick's Analysis: I understand Bellator wants to have home grown guys on top, but I don't understand the logic behind not wanting to pick Fitch up. He's still one of the top welterweights in the world, and would be a fantastic opponent for Ben Askren if that fight got together after a tournament. Fitch being out of the UFC immediately makes him one of the best, if not the best, fighter at that weight who isn't on the UFC's roster, and Bellator would benefit by having him on their roster. As for White's "explanation," there are a lot more fighters deserving of getting cut than Fitch, even at his pay grade and higher, so the argument that he's "too expensive" doesn't really hold a ton of weight. At the same time, the UFC can do what they please on that front, and they've decided they don't want to pay Fitch anymore at the rate they've been paying him. It's unfortunate he doesn't have a home for right now, and hopefully he can find someone interested in bringing him on shortly.
[Jon Fitch art by Cory Gould (c) MMATorch.com]
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Jamie Penick, editor-in-chief
(mmatorcheditor@gmail.com)
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