Fitch, Wellisch, and Aurelio Released By The UFC
Recent welterweight championship challenger Jon Fitch (19-3) was released by the UFC today after refusing to sign away his lifetime video game rights to the promotion, according to MMA Mania.
Heavyweight Christian Wellisch (8-4) was also cut by the UFC after failing to sign the agreement.
Fitch, who had been scheduled to fight Akihiro Gono at UFC 94 on January 31st, was last in action in August at UFC 87, losing to UFC welterweight champion Georges St-Pierre via unanimous decision. He had previously won 15-straight fights, including a record-tying 8-straight in the UFC.
Wellisch had won two-straight bouts over Anthony Perosh and Scott Junk, before losing to Shane Carwin at UFC 84 in May.
According to the report other fighters who refuse the sign the agreement may also be released.
Additionally, Five Ounces of Pain is reporting that lightweight Marcus Aurelio (16-6) has also been let go by the UFC, though his release is believed to be the result of his subpar performance. Aurelio is 2-3 in the octagon, most recently dropping back-to-back fights to Tyson Griffin and Hermes Franca.
wow I do not agree with this move at all…wow
damn.. hope to see you again fitch
Dbiz did have a good point in the other forum about this subject, Timcat bringing the infor a lil early, and Kris for being on top of his shhhh tonight
Just caught why Junie may have gotten kicked off the show in that lil teaser just now on SpikE
I have to believe that part of the reason for them wanting lifetime rights is for THQ, and UFC, not just UFC. And because if it wasn’t a lifetime license, they may have to later pull the game. Not a good situation, I hope that they can revisit the contract so that more fighters don’t leave because of this. I also hope this is just a rumor.
FR,
You made a good point on the other forum about where is he going to fight now.
DBiz,
In regards to your other comment, NFL players do get cut, Brock Lesnar got cut from the NFL. In fact, NFL players get cut all the time, the difference is that there is no competing organization. In the UFCs case there is a competing organization, that’s why Fitch wouldn’t want to sign the contract.
THQ quite possibly could have a lot to do with the lifetime commentment
This sucks. Fitch will soon have the same problem Jake Shields will soon not have, in being the best WW not in the UFC with no decent competition. He will have to move up to MW at the very least in order to fight decent competition in Affliction or Strikeforce.
This seems very petty to me.
It seems that the Aurelio release is unrelated to the game thing, still sucks.
What if GSP or A. Silva didn’t sign the deal? Think they wouldn’t release them? Hell no.
It does seem petty, but if this originated with THQ, as I suspect it did, its not something petty to them.
I hope we don’t see more UFC business decisions made by video game companies. They shouldn’t feed Affliction or anyone else.
unreal
Fitch vs Shields with Affliction
Wow… The worst part is now I can’t play the GSP/Fitch rematch in the game. I was looking forward to Yelling out FINISH HIM mortal kombat style, everytime I turned Fitch’s face inside out on my playstation.
Over a video game? Really? GAY! GAYER than Gary Shaw and Barbra Streisand in their ritual farm animal orgies! GAY! Fitch is f-ing badass and this f-ing sucks. There is more BS to come….I am almost sure of that.
I clarified the article, but Aurelio’s release is unrelated to the video game agreement and is the result of his back-to-back losses.
even if it was the game company who wanted the lifetime videogame release, it was ufc’s bad decision to release them, fitch could still have fought for ufc just not be in the game unless ufc’s ad campaign is to say that every ufc fighter is in the game, either way its still petty
hell… fitch they coulda made fitch a downloadable character that doesnt load into the next game or sumthing… but they ACTUALLY went as far as releasing him?!?! there has to be some sort of misunderstanding… It just doesnt make sense…
Justin, I meant they don’t get cut for not signing video game rights away.
this is just a rumor no way they would cut fitch. he just had one of the best fight of the ****ing year. believe it when you see it for real. come on guys
Honestly I think that if they wanted to have exclusive rights to John Fitch in a video game for life, maybe he made the right call?
Lets face it, no other organization is near as big as the UFC, and all the ones that have tried to compete in the states (and abroad) have failed thus far, but MMA is still fairly young, and so is Fitch, and lifetime exclusive rights to a fighters image to one company is big time, that means video games, t-shirts, hats, coffee mugs etc.. So to want big money for that is understandable by someone like Fitch.
Having said that if they wanted me i’d settle for 100k right now >.>
Due to all of this nonsense I’ve busted out the oldskool video game PRIDE FC and UFC Sudden Impact the hell with it whynot
Still sucks tho
This is just a way for the UFC to get the attention off of Fedor and M1 goodness what depths they will go too
I thought that was a possibility, DBiz.
muaythai4life,
Its their likeness just for the video game. Not other stuff as well.
The thing that makes the least sense out of all of this is that the UFC has non exclusive contracts with the guys for apparel at JC Penny, and are working on non exclusives for action figures. Why would they make them sign an exclusive contract for the video game (granted they stand to make a lot more money on the game than the other stuff). It just doesn’t make sense, there has to be more to this.
ESPN reports that “other AKA fighters may be released as well if they lose their upcoming fights”. I would assume this means Kos and Swick with their December fights. It looks like a camp vs. UFC. The AKA camp is really tight (and Christian Welliesch (sp?) is a lawyer) so they may be trying to put their foot down. Not a good outcome for them if they all get booted. I wonder how much a refusal to fight each other drove Dana White and the UFC to want to “clean up” a little??????
madness…
This is crazy. I seem to be shaking my head at a lot of the ufc’s crazy cuts lately. first werdum now Fitch. Bad cuts. Don’t like it one bit.
what is the UFC thinking totally unfair treatment of there fighters ..First of all that four man tournment should of had Couture vs Werdum not Lesnar…. Werdum deserved a shot way more, Now 1 lose Werdum is gone and now fitch that just BS
I’m just kinda curious where Fitch is going to go to stay competitive? I mean Affliction has canceled just as many shows as it’s put on now right? And I know they paid huge on their first show, but they let a few fighters go because they wanted to cut salaries after that event… so i’m sure they’ll pick him up, but how often can they have him fight? I think that given some time Fitch could maybe beat GSP, I mean lets be honest, he survived 5 rounds with him, no one else has to date, and I don’t think Penn will either.
I still wonder if it was only lifetime on the video game. normally when they want your image it goes a lot further than a video game.