After UFC 87, I Believe Jon Fitch Should fight at 185

After watching fight videos and the post fight interviews, which has become somewhat of a hobby with me, I started thinking that Jon Fitch could be very successful in the 185# weight class.

The similarities he has with Patrick Cote made me wonder how he would do in the higher weight class. He is big for a welterweight, has the height to manage it (Cote is 5' 11" and fights at 185#) and after seeing Jon fight Georges he looks like he could hold his own at Middleweight. I don't see it as being that much of a stretch.

Watching him recover at least three times when he should have been down for the count and hearing Georges say he wondered what to do to put him down, "he is unfinishable, he's crazy!"  I began to think maybe he is the guy to beat Anderson Silva.

Don't laugh at me and my idea without considering the whole picture. Fitch is a "beast" with at least nine lives, judging from his five round fight with GSP.  People think Georges is just a step below Anderson Silva. Jon took all the punishment Georges could dish out and was fresh enough to have gone another round, if his eyes hadn't swollen so badly he could scarcely see.

When Fitch was down he kept getting back up; Georges did not fall into Fitch's "trap" and try to submit him. (Maybe everyone has not read the same articles that I have, but Fitch admitted letting opponents try rear naked chokes on him by offering them his back and then using BJJ to counter and submit them). Georges had stated he suspected Matt Serra had offered him his back in Montreal, but since he (GSP) suspected a trap he used knees on Matt instead of trying to choke him out.

Well, Georges did not try to submit Jon, possibly for that very reason. 

For some reason, the fact that Jon is as tenacious as a bulldog (yes, I know he has a bulldog), and this stubbornness and willingness to keep fighting against all odds seems like exactly what is needed to beat Anderson Silva.

People are saying if Silva gets Cote on the ground he will beat him.  Therefore Patrick, who is a striker with heavy hands (from boxing while in the Canadian Army), will undoubtedly want to keep Silva standing and go for a lucky punch to knock Silva out.

Now Fitch is great on the ground, at submissions, and being a grinder who has a chance to tire his opponents out. He looked far superior to Travis Lutter who has been the only one to come close to getting a submission on Silva.

Fitch was two inches taller than Georges and kept wading back in to exchange strikes with him, and I think he would do just as well in an exchange with Anderson.

There is an aura of invincibility about certain fighters; But in his pre-UFC days Silva had four losses, so he can be beaten...he just hasn't been yet. This same intimidation factor helped Matt Hughes and Chuck Liddell until it was proven they were mortal after all, and now they are lacking the magical protection of that intimidation factor.

Anyway, these are just the ramblings of an old lady who stays up late watching fight videos and reading MMA articles all night. I also subscribe to Ring, FIGHT!, Grappling and a few other magazines which are excellent resources.

But often it doesn't take an expert to come up with an idea worth investigating.

And if I haven't mentioned it yet, we used to have a wonderful bulldog named the Bear; stop me if I've said told you this before . . . .