Jon Fitch and Mike Pierce Agree to Fight at UFC 107 in December
Welterweights Jon Fitch and Mike Pierce, both left without opponents due to a recent rash of injuries, have agreed to square off at UFC 107 on December 19 in Memphis, Tennessee.
Fitch (19-3), previously set to fight Ricardo Almeida at UFC 106 and rematch Thiago Alves at UFC 107 before injuries scratched both fights, reeled off a record eight-straight wins to begin his UFC career, Fitch had his 15-fight win streak snapped with a unanimous decision loss to welterweight champ Georges St-Pierre last August. The American Kickboxing Academy fighter has bounced back in 2009 with back-to-back wins over Akihiro Gono and Paulo Thiago.
Pierce (9-1), originally scheduled to fight Josh Koscheck at UFC Fight Night 20 in January before Koscheck was tapped as a late-addition to UFC 106, will be aiming for his seventh-straight win after upsetting Brock Larson in September in his UFC debut.
For complete UFC 107 coverage stay tuned to MMAFrenzy.com.
Tags: Jon Fitch, Mike Pierce
Loading ...
You have got to be kidding me, Did Fitch sleep with joe silva’s wife. This is fight number two in a row with a dude that has only one fight in the octagon, and Gono only had two fights in the octagon.
Went from #2 vs #3 to #2 vs #9238923487
Fitch is gonna FU<K this dudes day all up
I say wait till rumble knocks Kos out at the 17 sec mark and let him fight Fitch. 3 fights in 3 months. Thats one good way to say im sorry for coming in 6lbs overwieght whether you were injured or not.
They should have rescheduled the Fitch vs Alves.
your right, the fight with alves should have been rescheduled. but i have to disagree and say that kos is not going to get ko’d by johnson. the outcome will more then likely be kos by submission in the first or early second.
Pierce is ten times the fighter your giving him credit for. His wrestling is top notch and he has some heavy hands. He could possibly look to keep this fight standing and try and KO Fitch. At the end of the day Jon is just a little to good for Pierce at this stage in his career. Look for Fitch to take a UD. But nobody should be underestimating this guy.
I think Pierce is going to give Fitch some troubles. Even if he doesn’t it will only be a lopsided UD for Fitch.
I think this fight has a lot of “upset” written all over it actually… Fitch went from fighting Almedia (BJJ stud) to giving us fans the fight we all have wanted to see again Alves v Fitch (due to injury to Almedia) now from Alves to Pierce due to injury of the knee for Alves, soooo Fitch was getting prepaired or amped to fight the consensus #3 WW in the world and now he is just going to prepair to fight a tough guy, But this “tough” guy is looking at his opportunity to fight the World’s #2 WW so this is Pierce’s time to shine and take this moment ot shine honestly, it could happen,,,,, the new “Serra Effect”?
One thing going FOR Mike Pierce is that Jon Fitch might suffer from some sort of inadvertant letdown as a result of all the opponent-changing, and therein pull off the upset.
One thing going AGAINST Mike Pierce is if Jon Fitch is quietly but furiously p!ssed at being matched against a relative unknown, and decides to take it out on his opponent in front of 10,000+ witnesses in Memphis…
Fitch ain’t no Brock Larson. He will easily take this fight. God forbid he loses cause that would put him down the ladder where he doesn’t deserve to be.
Fitch RNC 2nd rd.
If Fitch does lose to Pierce, then he will deserve to be down the ladder.
True that
this fight has upset written all over it ladies and gentleman……no one has ever man handled larson like pierce did…..and not only that but pierce has better wrestling than fitch and his hands have alot more power in them as well………people who think fitch is some god who is better than everyone but gsp needs to watch his last fight where he almost lost to paulo thiago in the first thirty seconds of the fight……im picking pierce by UD
Gun,
Yeah Paulo was getting the best of Fitch in the early part of the fight but, top of the food chain guys like Fitch weather the storm and come out victorious.
This seems to be a fight everyone is getting on one side of the fence for so il give my best breakdown.
Look everyone “almost” submits Fitch(Thiago,Carneiro,Sanchez) but he ends up grinding you out and getting the W. Pierce offers nothing to Jon in the submission department that he hasnt seen and overcome. Im giving the submission edge to Fitch as he has proved vitually impossible to tap and owns some decent sub victories himself. Plus his guerrilla jiu-jitsu black belt under Dave Camarillo wont hurt either. Larson had a couble of opportunities to lock up a kamora on Pierce but was unable to finish. Something Jon might look to expose and capitalize on.
As for striking Im going with Fitch here aswell. He might not have KO power but Jon has decent technique and a good reach advantage over Pierce. Mike is slow and flat footed on his feet and Fitch should be able to utilize his improving kicks to wear away on Mike. Even if Jon does get cought he will be fine. We have seen Fitch get hit with everything guys have like Wilson and GSP, weather the storm and keep going. Once again Pierce will offer nothing here Fich hasnt faced before.
The big problem here for Fitch is the wrestling and power of Pierce. On paper Fitch would be the better wrestler but we have seen that he isnt impossible to take down and control. Pierce is a brick wall who will look to press him up against the cage and do exactly what he did to Larson. Carneiro was able to take Fitch down and control him for parts of rnd 1, something Pierce can do if given the opportunity. The difference here is that Jon trains with one of the best wrestlers in the UFC everyday. And Fitch is no dummy, He knows what Mike brings to the table, has watched the fight with Larson and will bring a gamplan that Brock didnt. He will look to use his jab and kicks whereas Larson threw telegraphed straight lefts. The experience and mental factor will come in to play here and Jon has never been broken.
Fitch has allways come prepared for his fights win or lose. And a change in opponents wont deter him. This is the same guy who has to get kicked out of the gym everday remember. Who says when hes not training hes training. So we should all expect a hungry Pierce and a well motivated and well prepared Jon Fitch. Like GSP said “Fitch is like the Terminator”.