Jon Fitch plans move to middleweight
Top welterweight (170lb) Jon Fitch is planning to move up to middleweight (185lb) sooner or later, and the time he does so may depend on the results of a fight on 11 December, according to MMAjunkie.com.
If on that night Josh Koscheck defeats Georges St-Pierre for the title he might move up and out of the division right away
Fitch, the Ultimate Fighting Championships fighter has long been the second-best fighter in his division, right behind St-Pierre. The American Kickboxing Academy fighter is 23-3 in his mixed martial arts'
career, and an incredible 13-1 in the UFC. He challenged once for the title against St-Pierre, but got roundly dominated by the Canadian fighter. Now he’s back in line for another shot, but his AKA team-mate Koscheck gets wins the title Fitch will be reluctant
to fight him and would move up instead.
Fitch explained the AKA's policy of not fighting team-mates.
"We have a philosophy at our gym that it would be much better to have three belts at AKA than to have two belts, and then send two guys to fight for the same belt," Fitch told MMAJunkie.com on Monday.
But according to Fitch, even if St-Pierre defeats Koscheck and Fitch challenges for the title, his time in the welterweight division is running out.
"GSP [St-Pierre] is first on my list," he said. "But by the time I win the belt at 170, there will be one or two fights left because I will have fought everybody else, and I'll want to move up. That's just
where my career will progress.”
Fitch has fought as heavy as 205lb in the past and even fought once at 185lb in the UFC, picking up a victory over Brock Larson. In his most recent victory at UFC 117, Fitch also defeated Thiago Alves, who
cuts extreme amounts of weight to reach the 170lb limit and is often considered to be as large as most middleweights.
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