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Jon Fitch among 16 fighters released from UFC on Tuesday

15K views 206 replies 80 participants last post by  2zwudz 
#1 ·
Former welterweight contender Jon Fitch was among the 16 UFC fighters who were released from the promotion on Tuesday.

UFC president Dana White also confirmed with MMAFighting.com that the following fighters were also let go: Wagner Prado, Mike Russow, Jacob Volkmann, Vladimir Matyushenko, Che Mills, Jay Hieron, Terry Etim, Paul Sass, Jorge Santiago, Mike Stumpf, Simeon Thoresen, C.J. Keith, Motonobu Tezuka, Josh Grispi and Ulysses Gomez.

Each fighter was coming off at least one loss in his most recent fight.
SOURCE

Some big names in there, some of which I expect to see back in the UFC by the end of this year/early next.
 
#84 ·
They're cutting fighters to make payroll room for women, flyweights, and terrible TUF fighters from the 7 different reality shows they are running. Which is why I dislike the 125 and women's divisions, and TUF.

Seriously this is embarrassing. Cat Zingano is a UFC fighter and Jon Fitch is not. Fitch could very well still be a top 10 WW and he is capable of giving everyone outside of GSP and Maia a good fight.
 
#86 ·
They're cutting fighters to make make payroll room for women, flyweights, and terrible TUF fighters from the 7 different reality shows they are running. Which is why I dislike the 125 and women's divisions, and TUF.

Seriously this is embarrassing. Cat Zingano is a UFC fighter and Jon Fitch is not. Fitch could very well still be a top 10 WW and he is capable of giving everyone outside of GSP and Maia a good fight.
except they keep cutting flyweights who are only making 4k ffs
 
#97 ·
The UFC needs to save money since their growth has stalled due to ever growing questionable business decisions as of late, even if they dont admit or dispute the numbers. They had to "layoff" quite a number of employees here. Darn shame these guys' livelihoods are paying for Dana's/UFC's stupidity.
 
#100 ·
My mind is exploding right now.

Fitch is top-10 WW easily (worldwide, not just UFC). I liked Matyushenko and thought he is pretty solid, and I'm surprised they'd release a young guy like Etim. Other than Fitch, they aren't even paying these guys that much to fight... yet Hardy can go on a 4 fight skid and is still hanging around, like that weird kid that sits in the corner alone at a house-party, but doesn't say a word.

Something is weird about this -- has the UFC ever released this many guys at once? My guess is they are either trying to save some money, or they are freeing up some roster space to sign a bunch of 125s-155s.
 
#102 ·
Regarding Fitch, this is both disappointing and confusing. Fitch has won 14 fights in the UFC with his only losses being to St. Pierre, Hendricks, and Maia. He has never lost back to back fights, and has compiled eight and five fight win streaks. Not to mention for a very long time, Fitch was thought to be the best welterweight in the world not named Georges St. Pierre. He showed in his fight with Erick Silva that he can stll compete with the best in the UFC. Unless there was a contractual issue or something, I see no logic behind cutting Jon Fitch. I'll be waiting for a statemnt from White or Joe Silva to follow.

Regarding the other fighters released, I wish that Hieron and Santiago would have een given another chance. Hieron was competitive with Ellenberger and got rushed by Woodley. Santiago had a relatively competitive fight with one of the best prospects in the entire organization.
 
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#104 ·
I dunno, it makes a lot of sense to me. I think everyone is aware that Fitch has been the #2 fighter at 170 for the past 6 years or so. Everyone is also aware that he will NEVER beat Georges St. Pierre in his lifetime, so this makes him the clog in the world's biggest logjam in MMA. He has steadly been beating prospect fighters and knocking off contenders for years in a way that is frankly uninteresting and isn't the fight that fans are looking for.

In times like these I have to remind myself that this is entertainment AND sport. The UFC does not have logical rankings because dollar values mean more than the significance of earning a rank.

Volkmann is another guy I don't mind seeing go along with Russo. They're the same breed of fighter that Fitch is but they're just not nearly as good in their respective divisions.

Valddy will probably hang the gloves up, it's sad but it's right thing at this point. The Janitor has had a good career.

Che Mills I think could have gotten another chance along with Sass. I think we'll see them back in the UFC in a year or so. Etim I'm not so sure of. He was posterized by Edson Barbosa with one of the most brutal knockouts imaginable. He'll be spending a long time trying to shake that memory from the fan's minds.

Jorge Santiago and Jay Hieron are journeymen who were brought in for one reason, to lose to guys the UFC were trying to promote. They're both knockouts waiting to happen. They'll probably get another shot down the line but again only to lose to UFC prospects.

The rest of the guys I don't know about or am uninterested in. I'm just looking at it objectively. It's all about the money and these guys probably don't bring enough in to warrant keeping around. Business is business.
 
#108 ·
I get that but should they also release Koscheck? You can't cut everyone who isn't gonna be a champ, Fitch is still one of the premier welterweights in the world and has just turned a corner in his career openly saying he was going to take more risks.

Maybe I'm just a butthurt Fitch fan but this cut is so ludicrous to me.


Sent from Verticalsports.com Free App
 
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#107 ·
Hard to argue with most of these.

Jon Fitch
1-2-1 in last four UFC fights.

Wagner Prado
0-2 in last two UFC fights.

Mike Russow
0-2 in last two UFC fights.

Jacob Volkmann
1-2 in last three UFC fights.

Vladimir Matyushenko
0-2 in last two UFC fights.

Che Mills
1-2 in last three UFC fights.

Jay Hieron
0-2 in last two UFC fights.

Terry Etim
1-3 in last four UFC fights.

Paul Sass
0-2 in last two UFC fights.

Jorge Santiago
0-3 in his last three UFC fights.

Mike Stumpf
0-2 in his last two UFC fights.

Simeon Thoresen
0-2 in his last two UFC fights.

C.J. Keith
0-2 in his last two UFC fights.

Motonobu Tezuka
0-2 in his last two UFC fights.

Josh Grispi
0-4 in his last four UFC fights.

Ulysses Gomez
0-2 in his last two UFC fights.
 
#112 ·
Let's be real here, the UFC peaked in 2011 and has been on a gradual decline since 2012 led by continuous bad decisions by Dana White and UFC management in general. Decisions like making a Flyweight division, making a women's division, EXPANDING TUF when most people want it abolished, giving multiple title shots to fighters coming off losses, cutting Jon Fitch a top 10 WW when guys like Dan Hardy still have a job, etc. are slowly but surely ruining the UFC.
Dana's ego and vision is far bigger than his revenue and the UFC is beginning to feel the hurt financially. I would expect Bellator to become more and more of a serious competitor to the UFC in the coming years.
 
#115 ·
Because Fitch is a notorious whiner.

Complains about respect, complains about matchmaking, complains about pay.


Dana was incredulous to it for the longest time because Fitch was such an incredibly boring fighter and honestly never really beat anyone that good except for Diego and Mike Pierce when Mike Pierce was debuting.


MMA fans have laughably short memory so the E. Silva fight cut a lot of slack for Fitch even though he got dominated in an uneventful fight a fight later.
 
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