A rematch between welterweight contenders Jon Fitch and Thiago Alves, previously slated for UFC 107 before an injury to Alves postponed the bout, is now scheduled for UFC 111 on March 27 in New Jersey, Alves’ manager Malki Kawa announced on Wednesday.
In their first meeting at UFC Fight Night 5 in mid-2006, Fitch earned a second-round TKO of Alves.
Fitch (19-3) reeled off eight-straight wins to begin his UFC career, but 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 three-straight wins over Akihiro Gono, Paulo Thiago, and most-recently Mike Pierce earlier this month.
Alves (16-6), previously targeted for a UFC 111 matchup with Ricardo Almeida, won seven-straight over the likes of Chris Lytle, Josh Koscheck, and Matt Hughes following his loss to Fitch, but is coming off a unanimous decision loss to St-Pierre in July at UFC 100.
UFC 111 is headlined by welterweight title-holder Georges St-Pierre vs. Dan Hardy and is also expected to feature an interim heavyweight title fight between Shane Carwin and Frank Mir.
For complete UFC 111 coverage as well as the latest UFC news and UFC rumors stay tuned to MMAFrenzy.com.
Pictured: Thiago Alves
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I like it. Although I am starting to sour a little bit on Fitch these days. It seems like his last hundred fights have been forgetful decision wins. Not quite sure, though, that will be the case with Alves. Good exciting stuff.
Hopefully neither fighter gets hurt beforehand and “may never fight again.”
Kinda bummed not to see Almeida vs. Alves, or Almeida vs. Fitch for that matter, but Fitch vs. Alves will still be good stuff, and a rematch many fans have been wanting to see.
At one point I had no idea who would win if these two were to throw down again. But now there isnt a doubt in my mind that Alves will have his way with Fitch.
On paper one might think that a great wrestler like Fitch should just be able to follow in GSP’s footsteps in order to grab the W at 111. But Thiago is a whole nother monster since their last fight and has showed in his fight against Kos he isnt getting taken down unless your name is GSP. Now granted Josh took the fight against Alves on short notice but he still has one of the best shots in MMA, so good in fact he was successful on one against the WW king in their fight. Fitch quite simply does not have the take down skills held by St Pierre and Koscheck. While Fitch showed in his fight against Pierce that his striking is still lacking and thats not something that should be when taking on a fighter like Thiago
So with this fight likely in the upright position for the most part its all but a matter of time before Jon gets put to sleep.
I agree with you on pretty much all fronts, except with Fitch getting KO’d. I think Alves will win, along the same lines that he beat Kos which was a 3 round pummeling but no stoppage. Fitch is a tough dude in great shape, while I don’t think he will get stopped, I think Alves will still get a decision.
It seems that fitch has really struggled here lately, no disrespect to his compeitors, and has really taken a beating. You have a good point, but I just think he is really getting run down and i could definitely see knocking him on his @$$ and having the ref stop it, cause everyone knows there is no quit in Fitch. But I just don’t see it ending well for him. And I can’t imagine anyway for him to pull out the victory in this one, even if it does go to a decision.
Hope Alves takes this one, I am not a big Fitch fan. I think Alves is much more skilled than he was in their first fight but it is hard to bet against Fitch.
Maybe its just me, but I don’t fully understand how people can disregard a fighter like Jon Fitch, who has won something like 19 of his last 20 fights, his sole loss being a decision loss to GSP, in which there is of course no shame.
I realize that Thiago Alves is a talented fighter, but he’s come nowhere close to achieving the sustained level of MMA success that Fitch has, and he was KO’ed by Fitch when they fought.
I realize that upkicking a man for a win isn’t exactly like CroCop’ing a man for a win, but nonetheless Alves has a ways to go before he reaches Jon Fitch’s level of proficiency.
Remember, Fitch has lost exactly ONE fight since 2003, and that was a decision loss to arguably the greatest MMA fighter on the planet.
IF, and thats a pretty shaky if IMO, Alves beats Fitch, then we can start realistically talking about Fitch having levelled off, but until I actually see someone other than GSP beat Jon Fitch, I’ll be waving off that Alves bandwagon for the time being.
Besides, its starting to look awfully crowded in that wagon…
;)
Sorry bro but I cant agree with you on this one. I just dont see how you expect this fight to go.
Like if you break it down step by step. Its a tough fight for Fitch to win. Fitch almost got KTFO by Pierce who has the power of Alves but half the speed and technical ability. So I think its safe to say that Thiago will win this fight if it stays standing.
It’s gonna be to noones surprise that Fitch will look to take this fight to the matt. But with that lies the problem. Fitch regardless of his “MMA” record is not the wrestler that Kos is. Not even close. And if Josh cant take Alves down than I find it highly unlikely that Fitch will. But for the sake of argument lets just say fitch does get Alves on the mat. How long exactly are we expecting Jon to keep him there. Even the mighty GSP found himself unable to keep Alves from getting back to his feet over and over again. So if somehow someway Fitch manages to gring Alves to the mat he is going to be greatly dissapoited when Thiago scrambles to his feet even faster and easier than he did against St.Pierre.
With everything said its as simple as this, on the feet Alves wins. On the gound Fitch wins. Fitch will not be able to take Alves down while the fight starts in the vertical position. Case closed.
For the record GSP kept Alves down plenty of times during that fight, watch again. Im out :)
Ahhhhhhhhhh …. why would the UFC put two title fights on the same card??? If it was up to me, I would like to see the UFC have a championship bout every PPV. This translates into each fighter defending the belt atleast 2 times a year, and most likely 3 times. Barring injuries of course.
Wow!
Differing opinions and some well thought out responses…but no one is getting pissed at each other?! Craziness. What is the world coming to? Heh.
Personally I love this fight. Fitch has fought and beat a lot of fighters inside the octagon, but for the last couple of years Alves has faced much tougher opponents then Fitch has. No one can dispute that. I’m gonna say that this time, Alves will just be too much for Fitch. IMO “heart” is the only area where Fitch has a clear advantage. I watched GSP VS Fitch last night…MAN!!! By round 4 anyone else would have quit, but Fitch just kept plodding away and somehow never seemed to get discouraged, even though he was never really in the fight. That fight actually reminded me a lot of Sanchez VS Penn.
At any rate, I think I’m gonna say that this will be a good war, but Alves will run away with it at some point in the second round and win by unanimous decision.
What are you guys talking about? All of this “If it stays standing, Alves will win”. Fitch knocked Alves out! Fitch has already proven that he can win this fight standing. Fitch is also a better wrestler. I would say in what way CAN Alves win? Fitch has already dominated him with striking and we all know Alves does not have the wrestling. Fitch at the very least takes this fight by decision.
That knock out was via up kick, not a standing knock out.
yes i cant wait fitch… alves… i may not make it back from the prudential center due to my brains being blown out by awesomeness. there really makin up for 78.
o god please dont let this be another boring fitch fight.. i cant stand that guy..
people keep saying how fitch KO’d alves before and will do it again.. but as justin said, that was an upkick which is pretty uncommon and if you ask me fitch got lucky.. besides that was 3 years ago(or 4 depending on time zone.. happy new years by the way). alves has fought way better fighters recently than fitch has.. fitch doesnt have the stand up or the speed to match alves.. fitchs ground control cant hold down alves if fitch is on top and alves has great gnp if he is on top.. alves by KO first round.. hopefully