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.
Makes no sense really, as Fitch is without a doubt a top 5 WW in the entire world. Sure he might not be the most exciting guy around to watch, but... released after a decision loss to Maia? Hmph, must be something more to the story.
Maybe they tried to get him to renegotiate his contract because he hasnt been looking as great recently (although that is probably related to the guys he has been fighting) and he wasnt having it.
Fitch was dominated by Maia, but not finished like Story. His fight before that against Erick Silva was epic! I call bullsh*t when Dana says he doesn't dislike Fitch.
Fully expected Grispi, and maybe Sass...but COME ON!!!
Yeah this has me very, very concerned about the future of the UFC. No doubt in my mind now something up with the UFC. They have to be in some kind of financial trouble. This has me seriously worried.
A lot of suprising names there. Mills, Sass, Fitch and Volkmann stick out the most. Mills and Sass will probably be back soon but I don't think we'll ever see Volkmann or Fitch again. Which sucks. I liked 'em both.
Fitch is 6-2-1 in his last 9, he looked great against Silva and he got KO'd by a guy who has massive power and out grappled by the single best grappler in the UFC, Maia had his back for 3 full rounds almost and couldn't sub him, if anything it shows how damn good Fitch actaully is, how does this make any sense at all?
If this was based off performance they can go **** themselves, Fitch just had what was unanimously considered his best fight in the UFC against Silva, and beat him and then he got dominated by Maia, but Maia is a monster at 170 and Fitch is still a top ten guy, come to think of it he probably wasn't making that much anyway. Dude was the second best Welterweight for YEARS except for when he lost to GSP and Alves was tearing through people left and right and even then he was still number three behind GSP and Alves.
A ******* guy like Robbie Lawler who stared at Tim Kennedy and Lorenz Larkin and isn't anywhere near the top ten gets signed but Fitch who was top five for years, just beat a guy like Erick Silva who was being hyped up as the next best thing in a FOTN winning performance and still is top ten gets the shaft. The message has been sent and the UFC can go straight to ******* hell after this Machida/Hendo fight.
Eh, obviously Fitch is still a UFC caliber talent. However I' be lying if I said I cared that he was cut. Never really entertains me and is caught in limbo at WW as he clearly won't ever be an actual threat for the belt again. It's whatever to me.
Neither are guys like Gleison Tibau and Matt Wiman, yet they're still employed.
I get Fitch wasn't the most exciting to most but the guy just won FOTN and derailed a very highly touted prospect, and is still a top ten fighter, I'm hoping this is a money issue and Fitch comes back because there's no excuse for cutting him and letting a guy like Gleison Tibau keep his job.
This is nonsense. Fitch is still a easy top 10 welterweight I have no idea why they would release him. There must be some other reason behind this or its just complete bullshit. Also I don't think Etim, Sass, Che Mills, Santiago, Russow, or Volkman deserved to be released.
Pretty crazy to think Leonard Garcia still fights for the UFC but guys like Fitch, Volkmann and Sass don't. Madness.
EDIT: For ****s sake. A guy like Dan Hardy even went on a 4 fight skid.
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