Jon Fitch took a beating and finished the fight against Georges St. Pierre at UFC 87, but ever since, he's yearned for a second chance. The rematch against GSP hasn't come to fruition, so Fitch (on the right) has come to grips with the fact that he can't control what happens with the UFC welterweight picture. He needs to focus simply on winning and doing so in impressive fashion.
B.J. Penn is up next for Fitch, who says he's blocked everything out of his life.
"Even thinking that I'm entitled for some reason to be fighting bigger fights or that I should be getting more respect or hell just thinking about someone taking my parking spot," Fitch told Neil Davidson from the Canadian Press. "Any little distraction, any little thought that's not focused on where it needs to be I think is just a deadweight."
Fitch is 13-1 in the UFC, has won five straight and is ranked No. 2 in the world at 170 by the USA Today/Bloody Elbow top 25 welterweight rankings, but the former Purdue wrestler knows he's got no shot of getting GSP if he can't take out Penn at UFC 127.
"I think in the past maybe I've thought about too many things other than just the fight right in front of me. And maybe that's part of the reason why I haven't finished the last few fights, so that's another reason why I haven't really thought of anything other than just fighting B.J."
Fitch said he's trimmed down a bit to battle the smaller Penn. Penn was the UFC's lightweight champ until two straight losses against the current belt holder Frank Edgar. The American Kickboxing Academy fighter has also put in extra work to defend against Penn's jiu-jitsu game.
The welterweight title picture gets very interesting if St. Pierre beats Jake Shields at UFC 129 in April. The plan is for GSP to move to middleweight, vacate his 170-pound title and challenge Anderson Silva. That means Fitch would have to be choice No. 1 to battle another contender for the vacant belt. Who that'll be, is anyone's guess. Martin Kampmann and Diego Sanchez fight next week at UFC on Versus 3. Carlos Condit has been on a hot streak, plus Koscheck and Shields are right there as well."I brought in one of (coach) Dave Camarillo's black belts from Modesto to help with some of the jiu-jitsu and I've put out some bounties for, submissions, too. The last couple of weeks, I've been offering guys $20, $25 a submission, if they're able to submit me. I've been able to avoid any payments thus far," Fitch said dryly.
Fitch may not get GSP again, but the belt could be there for the taking before the end of 2011.
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