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By: Jamie Penick, MMATorch Editor-in-Chief
A long awaited welterweight rematch between Jon Fitch and Thiago Alves has finally been made official for August's UFC 117 event.
In addition to the official addition, the UFC announced that the fight has taken over the co-main event slot on the night's card.
UFC 117 takes place from the Oracle Arena in Oakland, Calif. on August 7, headlined by a UFC Middleweight Championship bout between Anderson Silva and Chael Sonnen.
Fitch and Alves were previously scheduled to face one another on multiple occasions, but the fight was pushed back due to injury each time. Their most recently planned fight, at UFC 111 in March, was scrapped just days before the event when the New Jersey State Athletic Commission held Alves out of the event due to what they called an "irregularity" in his brain found on his CT scan.
Alves had surgery and then was recently cleared to fight after undergoing an MRI and an angiogram. Alves has not competed since losing a five round decision to Georges St. Pierre in their Championship bout at UFC 100, something he shares in common with his UFC 117 opponent.
Fitch won the first bout between the two back in 2006, and since his loss to St. Pierre at UFC 87 in 2008, Fitch has put together another win streak, which now stands at four fights after he defeated Alves' replacement Ben Saunders at UFC 111. He now holds a 12-1 record in the UFC.
Penick's Analysis: This is a great rematch and an excellent co-main event on one of the best UFC cards ever. This UFC 117 event is completely stacked, and though people will be down on seeing Anderson Silva after the debacle that was his UFC 112 bout with Demian Maia, there's plenty more on this card that makes it worth the $45 pay-per-view fee.
Many will be hoping Alves' improvement since their first fight can bring a better fight out of Fitch than fans have seen from the AKA product in recent events, as his wrestling oriented style has earned him many detractors over the past couple of years. The other question will be how much the layoff has affected Alves.
He was in shape for the March event and able to resume training shortly after his surgery, so he shouldn't suffer too much from ring rust, but it will have been 13 months since he last fought by the time he steps into the cage on August 7.
RELATED ARTICLE: ROUNDTABLE (pt. 2 of 2): Which summer UFC card are you most looking forward to - UFC 116, UFC 117 or UFC 118? Carter, Bacior, Hyden, Shelby, Lee, Matthew and Penick: [CLICK TO READ FULL ROUNDTABLE]
[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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