UFC 141 Results: Fighters Should Learn from Jon Fitch's Mistakes

This weekend featured one of the biggest heavyweight bouts in UFC history and one of the most anticipated scraps of the year featuring Nate Diaz and Donald Cerrone, and somehow a fighter who has been one of the best in the world for several years was lost in the shuffle.

To someone from the outside looking in, a fighter who has long been considered the second best welterweight in the world getting buried on a year-end card in favor of two lightweights on the cusp of title contention would seem odd.

But Jon Fitch has been underutilized by the UFC for a long time, very rarely getting featured bouts and constantly being pushed away from the spotlight in favor of more “fan-friendly” fighters.

Fitch has done what every fighter in this sport aims to do, and that’s win nearly every time he steps into the Octagon, but his underwhelming grappling-first style has often been criticized as boring and impossible to watch by fans.

Until Saturday night, Fitch had overcome nearly every obstacle not named Georges St-Pierre inside the UFC, but his luck finally ran out against Johny Hendricks and he was knocked out in the very first round.

There was a certain group of fans that were ecstatic Fitch had finally been taken out, but many in the MMA industry have wondered if the UFC brass were happy as well.

The UFC obviously did not like featuring Fitch due to his style, and while it is acceptable to a point, the time had almost come that they would be forced to give Fitch a title shot.

Fitch himself felt he deserved a second crack at GSP and the 170-lb. title long before he signed to fight Hendricks, but his style made the UFC hesitant to pull the trigger on a possible rematch and, as Hendricks proved, every fight is a dangerous fight.

While Fitch’s loss hurts his career exponentially, his loss is a chance for other fighters to learn from his mistakes.

MMA is about winning first, but the other side of this sport is entertainment, and Fitch’s lack thereof likely ended up costing him a shot at the welterweight title.

With plenty of collegiate wrestlers starting to transition into the sport, the emphasis on takedown defense and submissions from the bottom is going to grow for all fighters, but strong wrestling has proved to be a nearly unstoppable skill if used correctly.

But if these wrestlers go the route Fitch has gone and use their ability to control fights and ”fight not to lose," the sport itself is going to suffer and Dana White and company are not going to stand for it.

This isn’t an article saying fighters need to stand and bang or go home, but as the number of high-level wrestlers joining the sport rises, they need to realize their career will move much slower than they would like if they do not produce exciting fights.