Quote:
Originally Posted by The Donosaur  I don't truly see how Fitch has ever really left the top 3-4. I mean yeah you gotta put GSP, Condit, & Hedricks ahead of him, but given his track record I don't think the flash ko loss to Hendricks dropped him very far. Fitch has been fed a shit sandwich for a long time, and he has thrived anyways. If I was told there was gonna be a welter weight tournament tomorrow that doesn't feature GSP, my pick would be Fitch. Hendricks may be a bad match up for him, but after all Fitch has done I'd rather have him than Hendricks (although I do really like Hendricks). As for the maia fight, it should be a great ground fight that could go either way. I'd pick Fitch, but I'm not gonna count Maia out. The only problem I have with it is that if Maia wins he will be next for a title shot after the Hendricks/Kampman winner, but if Fitch wins he will continue to enjoy his shit sandwich. Quote:
Originally Posted by kalebarker As consistent as Fitch has been at winning through out his UFC career he does have the big name wins to keep him in the top 5 while going over two years with out a win like he just did. He has beaten a lot of top 20-11 fighters but not too many top 10. Alves and Sanchez are the only two fighter he has wins over that were undoubtably top 10 at the time, granted they were both top 5. | |
In addition, he lost a lot of cache in the public eye in the Penn fight. Most people had written BJ off since losing his belt to the smaller fighter in Edgar, and the surge of dislike that he'd created by talking smack about the beloved Georges was at an all time high [read: there are a ton of sites out there who reported he was "dominated" by Edgar, not once, but
twice, etc]. Penn went into the Fitch fight as a huge underdog: Fitch is bigger, stronger, fantastic sub D, has limitless cardio and was going to grind Penn into poi. When Penn actually came out and made it a fight, it was easier to hate on Fitch than it was for many fans to give Penn any credit. Jon must have been overrated all these years, because BJ can't be skilled or anything, amirite?
So when Fitch catches a flash KO in his next fight back--a 10 month injury layoff wasn't helping any, either--you had a lot of casual fans who were ready to drop him from the top 10, many of whom just hate his style of fighting in the first place.
He's a perennial top 4-6 WW. Other than Georges, I don't know that there is any WW who I'd say takes more than 5 out of 10 against Fitch.
rh
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