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JON FITCH
Jonathan Parker Fitch (born February 24, 1978 in Fort Wayne, Indiana) is an American professional mixed martial arts fighter. He currently fights as a welterweight in the Ultimate Fighting Championship.
In 2002, Fitch graduated from Purdue University with a Bachelor's in Physical Education and a minor in History. A member of the Purdue wrestling team, Fitch – a four-year letterman – wrestled under the tutelage of Tom Erikson and eventually became the team captain of his wrestling squad.
Erikson – a former PRIDE fighter – would occasionally bring other mixed martial artists to the wrestling gym, and Fitch would be introduced to such fighters as Mark Coleman and Gary Goodridge. The sport, and the money that the top-tier fighters were making, interested Fitch, and he started his mixed martial arts career in 2002.
Fitch is a Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu brown belt under Dave Camarillo as of 2/13/07.
Fitch began his career at Light-Heavyweight with a record of 1 win, 2 losses, and one No Contest. Understanding that the sport required cross training in the martial arts, Fitch soon left for San Jose, California to train with the American Kickboxing Academy, and consequentially, has been undefeated since then.
In his next seven fights, Fitch would amass wins over fighters such as Shonie Carter, Alex Serdyukov, and Jeff Joslin. After failing to make the selection process for the first season of The Ultimate Fighter – a last-minute decision by the production team that left Fitch stranded in an airport with his luggage already boarded – he would earn a shot in the Ultimate Fighting Championship on October 3, 2005, where Fitch defeated Brock Larson in a middleweight bout.
Soon after, Fitch dropped to the welterweight division, and won his next two UFC fights against Josh Burkman and Thiago Alves. Despite his success in the UFC, Fitch went 3-0 in the organization before being shown on a live broadcast. At UFC 64, Fitch made his pay-per-view debut, defeating Kuniyoshi Hironaka by unanimous decision. At UFC 68 Jon fought and defeated Luigi Fioravanti by rear naked choke in the second round of the match. After the bout, Fitch stated that he would like to face Karo Parisyan in his next fight. He recently defeated Brazilian Top Team fighter Roan Carneiro at UFC Fight Night 10 in his second main card UFC event, again by a rear naked choke in the second round. He currently holds an MMA record of 15-2, 1 NC and a UFC record of 7-0.
Fitch's most recent fight was against Diego Sanchez at UFC 76 on September 22. He defeated Sanchez by split decision. On January 10, 2008, Fitch announced on his official website that he would next fight Akihiro Gono at UFC 82. However, on January 19, 2008, Gono was forced to withdraw from the fight due to a hand injury suffered during training. Gono will be replaced by Team Quest fighter Chris Wilson.
Source: Wikipedia
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