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[Sakara=Excitement]

Dana White and the Fans Want Jon Fitch vs Josh Koscheck - Bloody Elbow

There was a very telling exchange between Dana White and the #2 welterweight in the USAT/SBN Consensus MMA Rankings Jon Fitch at the press conference after UFC 111:

Fitch and Koscheck are training partners at the American Kickboxing Academy. They have long refused to fight each other or teammate Mike Swick -- Gal's Guide calls it their "Bros Before Hoes Policy". This wouldn't really be that big a deal except that the two of them have hung around the top tier of the UFC welterweight division for so long. Fortunately Koscheck's losses Paulo Thiago and Thiago Alves have opened up some space in the division's stratosphere, but Fitch has been perfect other than against GSP.

Despite this, Fitch thinks that his teammate has already done enough to have been fighting for the title at UFC 111 and shouldn't have to get past Paul Daley at UFC 113, per MMA Weekly:

One has to wonder whether Fitch and Koscheck would have been bitching so much if their teammate Mike Swick had beaten Dan Hardy in their title eliminator fight at UFC 105.

MMA Weekly makes a very balanced argument:

Sergio Non makes the case against AKA:

Fitch did nothing to help his cause Saturday by winning another grinding ugly fight via decision against the unranked Ben Saunders. The guy has been a thorn in Dana White's side for a long time because he's so good but dreadfully unpopular with fans.

Something tells me that Josh Koscheck will need to beat Paul Daley in spectacular fashion to get a title shot now that Fitch has turned this into a pissing match between AKA and Dana White. We all remember how their last squabble went when Jon Fitch briefly refused to sign over rights to his video game likeness. AKA quickly folded after the UFC briefly cut Fitch. Fitch remained in the doghouse for a long time.

Normally I tend to take the side of the fighters in disputes with management, but not this time. I'd love to see Fitch vs Koscheck. Let's make it happen Dana.

[MickeyKnox]

If Dana makes Fitch and Kos fight eachother even though they are teammates, then NO fuckin fighter should have an excuse not to fight their teammates. NOBODY.

[WyldeSDMFER86]

Originally Posted by DayneFS

If Dana makes Fitch and Kos fight eachother even though they are teammates, then NO fuckin fighter should have an excuse not to fight their teammates. NOBODY.

I think that after Rashad loses to Rampage, he should be made to fight Jardine then. Hell everyone should have to fight their training partners then.


That fight would suck. They wouldnt wanna hurt each other, so it would look like a 15 minute sparring session. Dana is gay if he doesnt see that.

[MMA4EVERRR]

the difference between the guys at AKA and other camps is that AKA is a san jose based gym and one of its kind. All their fighters share the same cornermen (camarillo, cook, mendez, etc) and if kos and fitch were to fight, who do the cornermen backup? do they split the camp in half to help train the guys? should one of them b forced to train at another camp, and if so, who? its an ugly situation with AKA with teammates fighting each other and different with say BLACKHOUSE with guys like silva, nogs, machida, jds because although they all are part of blackhouse and train together, they do seem to have their own separate coaches...at least that is what i have noticed from the countdown shows, but correct me if im wrong.

i dont mind a fight with kos n fitch but its a very tricky situation with the way their camp operates.

[KevoOnTheRadio]

Everybody makes the Jardine/Rashad comparrison. When have they been even close to having to fight eachother? Sugar is a former world champion, currently top 3 in the world. Jardine is maybe top 15.
Fitch is going to have to have another 7 fight win streak to get a rematch. Or finish his next opponent. Or beat Kos. Simple as that. Fair? Not really. But thats the deal.

[Daellusx]

I think Dana hit the nail on the head when he said that apparently he (Fitch) doesnt want the title bad enough. If Fitch and Kos are not willing to fight each other when they are both at the top of the division then they both need to shut up about title shots.

Either the title is worth beating your teammate for or your teammate is more important than the title. If they are not going to fight each other then they will have to keep fighting other fighters until one of them loses and the other comes out as the clear #1 contender. Until then they need to shut up about earning title shots.

[Xanatos]

I'm siding with Dana on this one, and if that means a few more Dana White dick sucking comments then so be it. Fighting teammates should be avoided when possible, and usually isn't much of a problem considering the depth of some of the UFC's divisions, but when it gets down to 3 of the top 5 Welterweight contenders refusing to fight each other it's time to be made an example of.

I'm always the defending GSP and Fitch and even Maynard for "boring" grinding decisions, but when you have people like Paulo Thiago choking out Swick and knocking out Kos, I don't see how Fitch can think he deserves the next shot, especially without fighting Kos or Swick himself.

If he refuses to fight his teammates in this situation, then maybe Strikeforce is a better place for him. I wouldn't mind seeing him fight Diaz anyways.

[Mac]

Originally Posted by KevoOnTheRadio

Everybody makes the Jardine/Rashad comparrison. When have they been even close to having to fight eachother? Sugar is a former world champion, currently top 3 in the world. Jardine is maybe top 15.
Fitch is going to have to have another 7 fight win streak to get a rematch. Or finish his next opponent. Or beat Kos. Simple as that. Fair? Not really. But thats the deal.

Actually there was a time right after Jardine beat Chuck where Jardine/Evans would have made a lot of sense.

Also, don't people think Machida/Anderson Silva makes sense for the 205 strap. It won't happen and Dana won't make the same deal out of it that he is Fitch. He's got a hard on for Fitch and just doesn't like him over a fucking video game.

[b0sH]

The AKA boys have been tossing each other off for far too long talking about how each of them deserve a title shot.

Kos - Already beaten by GSP and is 3/5 in his last 5 fights, he's about as far away from deserving a shot as you can get. He beat Trigg and Rumble, hardly throwing his hat in the ring with that form.

Fitch - Obviously deserves another shot but it's not suprising he's had to wait his turn, he hasn't finished a single fight since GSP made his face look like a hamburger. If you're not gona finish fights then you should expect to see people like Hardy jump the line.

Swick - Lost his last two fights including the one to Hardy proving he wasn't ready for GSP.

I just don't get what they're bitching about. None of them deserved to be ahead of Hardy in my opinion, he was the in form fighter who was making his bouts exciting and was without a loss in the UFC.

In some ways I agree with Dana, people want to see the best fights, it may suck having to fight a training partner at some point but that's what being a professional is all about.

[Xanatos]

Originally Posted by Mac

Actually there was a time right after Jardine beat Chuck where Jardine/Evans would have made a lot of sense.

Also, don't people think Machida/Anderson Silva makes sense for the 205 strap. It won't happen and Dana won't make the same deal out of it that he is Fitch. He's got a hard on for Fitch and just doesn't like him over a fucking video game.

Actually Dana White has said that he'd make Silva vs machida happen if it came to that point whether they wanted to fight each other or not. I have no video proof or anything, but i do remember watching that interview.

I also think there's a difference there. Silva isn't outspoken about wanting the bout, whereas Fitch is. He continually says he deserves a shot, but refuses to fight Kos.

But that's just little ole me....