Jon Fitch
Record: 21-3-0 (Win-Loss-Draw)
4 (T)KO's
5 Submissions
11 Decisions
1 Other
(born February 24, 1978 in Fort Wayne, Indiana) is an American professional mixed martial arts fighter. He fought Georges St-Pierre at UFC 87 for the welterweight title.
Fitch received his Guerilla jiu-jitsu black belt under Dave Camarillo (the founder of Guerilla jiu-jitsu, which culls Brazilian jiu-jitsu and judo together and gears it toward mixed martial arts) on July 2, 2008.
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 the martial arts, Fitch soon left for San Jose, California to train with the American Kickboxing Academy and went undefeated until his loss to UFC welterweight title-holder, Georges St-Pierre.
In his next seven fights, Fitch 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 in a middleweight bout.
Soon after, Fitch dropped to the welterweight division and won his next six fights. With victories over Josh Burkman, Thiago Alves, Luigi Fioravanti, and Diego Sanchez, Fitch was now seen as a welterweight contender. On March 1, 2008, Fitch defeated Chris Wilson by unanimous decision at UFC 82. This marked his 8th consecutive victory in the UFC, tying the record set by Royce Gracie for most consecutive wins in the UFC. 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 with scores of 50-43, 50-44, 50-44 in UFC 87. St-Pierre retained his UFC welterweight title by exhibiting clear dominance over a durable Jon Fitch, scoring multiple devastating strikes and taking the former Purdue wrestling captain down at will. 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. Had Fitch beaten St-Pierre he would have gone on a nine fight winning streak beating Royce Gracie and Anderson Silva's streak of eight.
Fitch was released from the UFC on the 20 November 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 is planning with THQ. In the end, Fitch ended up signing a licensing agreement that will allow the UFC to feature him in their upcoming video game release and returned to the UFC. Fitch's exile from the UFC lasted less than 24 hours.
In his most recent fight Fitch dominated Pride Fighting Championships veteran Akihiro Gono en route to a convincing unanimous decision scored 30-27, 30-27 and 30-26 at UFC 94.
On a recent interview in his official MySpace, fitch addresses that he would like to fight Karo Parisyan on his next UFC vault.
It has been announced that Jon Fitch will fight Paulo Thiago at UFC 100 in Las Vegas on July 11
