Jon Fitch among 16 fighters released from UFC on Tuesday

[Dale]

Former welterweight contender Jon Fitch was among the 16 UFC fighters who were released from the promotion on Tuesday. UFC president Dana White also confirmed with MMAFighting.com that the following fighters were also let go: Wagner Prado, Mike Russow, Jacob Volkmann, Vladimir Matyushenko, Che Mills, Jay Hieron, Terry Etim, Paul Sass, Jorge Santiago, Mike Stumpf, Simeon Thoresen, C.J. Keith, Motonobu Tezuka, Josh Grispi and Ulysses Gomez.


Each fighter was coming off at least one loss in his most recent fight.

Harsh on Fitch imo, sure he might not be the prettiest or most exciting fighter to watch but he's still a solid guy to test other the up and comers.

 

[The Cork]

Bellator will be rubbing their hands with glee.

Fitch, Sass and Volkmann are solid guys. Expect Fitch to go and decision Ben Askren for their title now and add to the list of guys Dana hates over there.

 

[Deezy]

Glad to see Fitch can go somewhere else and get treated better than he was by Dana White.

Uncle Vladdy too? Fuck the UFC.

Bellator and Spike going to be getting some good names as a result of this, hell go to ONE FC and get a bigger payday beating up munchkin Flips.

 

[Big Red Jericho Punk]

Poor Vlady, he was such a respectable guy how can they do that to him?

Some of these cuts are very harsh, especially for Fitch. He put on one of the best fights in 2012 against Silva. Oh well hope for the best for each guys and Bellator uses these guys.

 

[Nerotheory]

Odd to see Fitch cut, i thought he was a UFC lifer till retirement. I guess he goes to Bellator and does business there for a little.

 

[No More Sorrow]

Jon Fitch among 16 fighters released from UFC

Cant believe Fitch has been cut, some other names on there surprise me as well.

 

[Deezy]

All I know is UFC signs waaay too many people and have an overrun of a hundred fighters.

And the mass cuts will most likely continue and may even result in fighters no longer being loyal to a company that callously fires people like this. Gomez found out about his release on fucking Twitter.

I don't think the UFC is doing business right anymore, they have turned WWE 05ish imo, and think they got a monopoly. But with Bellator getting Viacom backing and the new World Series of Fighting getting picked up by NBC. It will be interesting to see what happens in the MMA landscape.

 

[No More Sorrow]

According to Dana another HUNDRED fighters are to be cut in the next few weeks due to all the Strikeforce guys coming over, plus they're going to be signing a ton of woman fighters.

Also Dana White spoke on the Jon Fitch release, he said Fitch was being paid too much money for where he is at this point in his career, expects him to go to Bellator win the championship over their then he'd be back in the UFC.

 

[Deezy]

66 grand is hardly GSP money here. There goes Zuffa fucking fighters on paydays again. "Let's bring in some nobody that is 10-0 and pay him 8 grand." This is strictly Dana cutting Fitch so he doesn't fuck up plans they have for certain up and coming fighters, like he did **cough**Erick Silva**cough**

66 grand is hardly GSP money here. There goes Zuffa fucking fighters on paydays again. "Let's bring in some nobody that is 10-0 and pay him 8 grand." This is strictly Dana cutting Fitch so he doesn't fuck up plans they have for certain up and coming fighters, like he did **cough**Erick Silva**cough**

 

[The Cork]

If Fitch got cut with a 2-2-1 record in his last 5, then a lot of guys need to be watching their backs.

Machida is 2-3 in his last 5, including a dubious win over Shogun.
Leonard Garcia could be 1-9 in his last 10 but for horrendous judging.
Dan Hardy is 2-4 in his last 6.
Sonnen is 2-2, including a robbery of Bisping, plus is about to get TKO R1 in his next fight.

Of course the big names won't get cut but I'm guessing if any of the Strikeforce guys lose just once then they are out.

 

[Dale]

There's a video up where he discusses the cut, it's about 15 minutes long and it's just a tirade that barely makes any sense. A worthwhile watch.

 

[Troy]

I actually thought it was a joke, very surprised that Jon Fitch was released. Can't believe that Dana is saying it was about money with him, UFC already underpay the majority of their fighters and Fitch as an established guy and a top five guy in his division deserves the money that he gets.

Will be crazy if UFC are cutting a hundred guys over the next month, fair enough that they do have a ridiculous amount on their books but they do have a ton of shows that they need to produce each year and they need a big roster to ensure they fill each card.

Bellator will no doubt sign a few of these guys. Will be good for the competition to improve their rosters with these cuts and the cuts to come.