Jon Fitch

Jon Fitch (born February 24, 1978) is an American retired mixed martial artist.

He has competed in the Welterweight divisions of the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC), the Professional Fighters League (PFL), and most recently for Bellator MMA.

In the UFC, Fitch compiled a record of 14–3–1 and once challenged for the UFC Welterweight Championship.

In the PFL, Fitch achieved championship success when he won the PFL Welterweight Championship, and he also once challenged for the Bellator MMA Welterweight World Championship.

After graduating from Carroll High School, Fitch enrolled at Purdue University in 1997 and graduated in 2002 with a bachelor's in physical education and a minor in history.

As a walk-on to the Purdue wrestling team, Fitch – a four-year letterman – wrestled under the tutelage of Tom Erikson and eventually became the team captain of his wrestling squad.

Fitch secured a starting spot early on in his career, but struggled to find initial success.

Compiling an 8-23 record his sophomore season, Fitch impressively turned that around to compile an 18-12 record in his final year.

He finished with a 45-51 record overall for his collegiate wrestling career.

Tom Erikson– a former PRIDE fighter – would occasionally bring other mixed martial artists to the wrestling gym, and Fitch would be introduced to such fighters as Mark Coleman and Gary Goodridge.

The sport, and the money that the high-level fighters were making interested Fitch, and he started his mixed martial arts career in 2002.

Jon Fitch began his career at light heavyweight with a record of four wins, two losses and one No Contest.

Understanding that the sport required cross training in various martial arts, Fitch soon left for San Jose, California to train with the American Kickboxing Academy.

In his next seven fights, Fitch fought at Middleweight and amassed wins over fighters such as Shonie Carter, Alex Serdyukov and Jeff Joslin.

After failing to make the selection process for the first season of The Ultimate Fighter – a last-minute decision by the production team that left Fitch stranded in an airport with his luggage already boarded – he earned a shot in the Ultimate Fighting Championship on October 3, 2005, where Fitch defeated Brock Larson by unanimous decision in a middleweight fight.

Soon after, Fitch dropped down to the welterweight division and won his next seven fights.

With victories over Josh Burkman, Thiago Alves, Luigi Fioravanti, Diego Sanchez, and Chris Wilson (tying the record set by Royce Gracie for most consecutive wins in the UFC), Fitch was seen as a top welterweight contender.

UFC President Dana White praised Fitch's performances inside the Octagon, and indicated that Fitch would fight the winner of the Georges St-Pierre vs. Matt Serra Welterweight title fight.

Fitch was defeated by Georges St-Pierre via unanimous decision (50–43, 50–44, and 50–44) at UFC 87.

After the fight GSP spoke to Fitch about the growth that his own loss prompted and said that Fitch's experience should be no different.

Fitch was released from the UFC on November 20, 2008.

The dispute was over his reluctance to sign a lifetime contract to allow his name and likeness to be used in a video game the UFC released with THQ.

In the end, Fitch ended up signing a licensing agreement that will allow the UFC to feature him in their UFC Undisputed video game release and returned to the UFC.

Fitch's exile from the UFC lasted less than 24 hours.

Fitch dominated Pride Fighting Championships veteran Akihiro Gono en route to a unanimous decision victory at UFC 94.

Fitch next defeated formerly unbeaten Brazilian Paulo Thiago via unanimous decision at UFC 100.

Fitch was expected to fight Ricardo Almeida on November 21, 2009 at UFC 106 but, due to a knee injury sustained by Almeida, the fight was cancelled.

Fitch was then scheduled to face Thiago Alves in a highly anticipated rematch on December 12, 2009 at UFC 107.

However, Alves suffered an injury and was replaced by Mike Pierce.

Fitch won via unanimous decision.

Fitch was expected to finally face Thiago Alves on March 27, 2010 at UFC 111, but on March 25, 2010, Alves was forced off the card due to a brain irregularity that appeared on a pre fight CAT scan.

However, Ben Saunders, who was previously scheduled to fight on the same card against Jake Ellenberger, requested that he fight Fitch instead and that fight took place on the main card.

Fitch won the fight via unanimous decision.

The Alves/Fitch rematch finally took place at UFC 117.

This fight was confirmed to be the number one contendership for the welterweight championship (to fight the winner of the St-Pierre/Koscheck bout).

Alves again failed to make weight, weighing in at 171.5 lbs, meaning he had to give up 20% of his fight purse.

Fitch went on to defeat Alves via unanimous decision.

Dana White later made remarks that the manner of Fitch's victories (primarily judges' decisions rather than finishes) and lack of connection with the UFC fans has put Fitch's number one contender status in doubt.

Following Jake Shields' victory over Martin Kampmann at UFC 121, White confirmed Shields as the next in line for the Welterweight title shot, leaving Fitch's status in the division unconfirmed.

Fitch thought this funny, considering that Shields' victory was mostly the same as Fitch's previous performances.