Amadi's Take
AMADI: With shifts in UFC 137 welterweight fights, Jon Fitch passed over yet again
Sep 8, 2011 - 9:45:03 AM AMADI: With shifts in UFC 137 welterweight fights, Jon Fitch passed over yet again

DISCUSS ALL THIS IN OUR NEW MMATORCH FORUM

...OH, ONE MORE THING - PLEASE BOOKMARK US & VISIT DAILY!

By: Jason Amadi, MMATorch Columnist

The difference between Nick Diaz and other peculiar combat sports personalities is that other fighters tend to not let their eccentricities interrupt their cash flow. Even professional boxers who moonlight as batterers are usually willing to do whatever necessary to sell their fights. After all, they have to pay lawyer fees somehow. Whatever the issue with Diaz may turn out to be, his flagrant disregard for the rules made it clear that UFC's dependency on Diaz to help carry a main event title fight simply couldn't continue. While Diaz is most certainly the problem, the most interesting takeaway in the scenario might be that Jon Fitch wasn't the answer.

To say the UFC wasn't dealt a particularly fair hand this year on pay-per-view would be a massive understatement. The UFC's top draw has spent most of 2011 out with diverticulitis, a number of main events have been reshuffled due to injury, and the promotion has also had to thrust a number of fighters into main event slots for the very first time. The UFC was banking on major title fights to help close out 2011, and because of Nick Diaz's instability, those plans have been compromised.

By removing Diaz, the UFC left two gaping holes in their UFC 137 card; both of which could easily be filled by the UFC's most undervalued welterweight, Jon Fitch.

The easiest way to the situation would have been to grant Fitch the rematch with Georges St-Pierre that he's waited over three years for. That would have preserved the fan friendly Carlos Condit-B.J. Penn matchup, and still delivered a quality main event.

Even if Fitch is slipped into Condit's slot against Penn (which is still possible), it would still be a spot that the UFC passed him over for in favor of Carlos Condit to begin with. The fact that Fitch has gone 13-1-1 in the UFC since debuting for the promotion in 2005, yet still wasn't considered for the main event slot or the original co-main event of UFC 137 speaks volumes about the level of disinterest in Fitch on behalf of the fans and the UFC.

Jon Fitch seems to be playing a waiting game with the UFC. It seems as though the UFC refuses to treat Fitch with the respect that a man of his accomplishments deserves unless he galvanizes the fans with his performances the way a man of his accomplishments should have by now.

Conversely, Fitch seems to be banking on his own consistency and track record so that UFC will eventually have to give him what he deserves, even if he is far and away the least popular elite fighter in the UFC.

The UFC actually banked on Fitch's accomplishments earlier this year by having him headline UFC 127 alongside B.J. Penn, and fan interest just wasn't there. Debating whether or not the UFC's treatment of Jon Fitch is indicative of the status of mixed martial arts as a sport is a fruitless endeavor; the sport is most definitely legitimate. However, it will be interesting to see how Fitch responds to seeing fighter after fighter be placed above him on cards without having beaten him.

Will Fitch turn up his intensity level and capitulate to the desires of his Zuffa overlords? Or will Fitch continue his grind at all costs mentality and outlast every man on the roster in silence?

Feel free to follow me on Twitter @JasonAmadi. Let us embrace the grind.