Dana White: Penn vs. Fitch will determine the next Number One Contender at Welterweight
Posted on February 15, 2011, 11:35 PM by Joey SantosusThe stakes were raised for the UFC 127 main-event Tuesday, as UFC President Dana White revealed during a conference call that the winner of the Welterweight clash between B.J. Penn and Jon Fitch will be the division's new number one contender.
"Let's face it, the reality is B.J. Penn has held titles in both weight classes," said White. "Fitch has fought for the title and has literally dominated that division for a long time, just didn't win the title. Any one of these guys that wins this fight is in the mix - the No. 1 guy."
Its familiar territory for Fitch, who has long awaited another shot at the title since coming up short against Georges St. Pierre at UFC 87. For the time being, though, the AKA trained fighter refuses to look past the man he will stare across the octagon at in less than two weeks time.
“I don’t want to waste any time thinking about anything other than fighting B.J. right now,” Fitch insisted.
Penn returned to Welterweight last November after dropping back-to-back title fights to current Lightweight champ Frankie Edgar. At UFC 123 he was welcomed back to the division by his old rival Matt Hughes, who Penn knocked out just 21-seconds into the opening round. While the victory was only his second at Welterweight since dethroning Hughes at UFC 46 in 2004, the Hawaiian now finds himself just one win away from title contention.
“As of now I’m not even thinking about that,” Penn said. “I’m not thinking about titles, I’m just happy to fight an opponent of Jon Fitch’s level and Jon Fitch’s stature.”
Who the winner may face remains a mystery at this point. Current division Champion Georges St. Pierre is set to defend his title for sixth time when he meets Jake Shields on April 30th at UFC 129 in Toronto. If St. Pierre emerges victorious, a possible "superfight" with Anderson Silva may be next for the French-Canadian, in which case, according to White, he would relinquish the title and remain at Middleweight.
B.J. Penn vs. Jon Fitch will headline the stacked UFC 127 fight card, set for February 27th from the Acer Arena in Sydney, Australia. Also featured will be a Middleweight showdown between Michael Bisping and Jorge Rivera, as well as Aussie George Sotiropoulos going head to head with Dennis Siver.
Photo: BJPenn.com
Comments
this post should read "Penn vs Fitch determines next number one contender spot...Unless Fitch wins and dana and the ufc pass him over again!" lol
I feel like its lose lose. On one hand you have a rematch between the two sleepy kings in the huggy bear division, on the other hand you have a re-rematch of a fight thats already wayyyy too played out and BJ will probably be outhugged again.
BJ should have just sucked it up and increased his work ethic. Koscheck, fitch, GSP or shields have a good chance of just hugging him otu every round.
ok penn heres ur chance beat fitch! than your set up for your fight with gsp!
penn is one of my favourite fighters but if he fights gsp again there is only 1 result and thats a gsp win. Penn cant handle the size, the strength, the game plan, the cardio of gsp. Penn is a very talented fighter and ill say again one of my favourites but he is a too small against one of the biggest welter weights and gsp is brilliant were penn isnt. Gsp will always come in great shape and will have another great game plan and penn will come up short.
It's always a rip off for Fitch and a massive gift for some other dude in the division.
That says a lot about the WW division IMO and I'm so tired of those rematches....It's time for GSP to at least get a couple fights in the MW division
na mate no rematch either way. if shields wins (which he wont) they will fight him and if gsp wins he goes up a weight forever. so hopefully gsp wins at 129 then maybe the winner of sanchez kampmann will get winner of penn fitch?
i personally would love to see penn vs thiago alves for the title. that would be a great fight.
screw this match up. Fitch should have gotten the title shot already. I love bj but if he wins fitch gets screwed and if fitch wins then bj might consider retirement which sucks. but this will be a fun fight for sure
You really think he's going to go up to MW if he wins?
yea man he said when he goes up he will stay up and relinquish the ww belt.
and dana wants to put the silva gsp fight together so its gunna happen
Exactly Enson! Haha I'm sure Dana is praying hard for Penn to win.
BJ PENN
If GSP wins his next fight....then he truly has cleared out the WW division, i dont think he'll want to stay there so the MW move is more likely.
@mmaw I don't believe GSP wants to move to MW. No one seems to take notice that he says he MIGHT move up towards the end of his career and make the move permanent, but he's no where near that stage. 2 years ago most people thought A.Silva would be at 205 permanently by now, and looking back now most of the suggestions were by Dana not Silva himself. I don't want to see GSP fight BJ or Fitch again to be honest coz i know the outcome i'd rathr see GSP take super fights is he beats Sheilds. i would love to see GSP fight MW like Maia not just Silva.
He cleared it out in summer 09. there's a reason he just keeps fighting rematch after rematch. Without shields and penn coming from elsewhere, that division was totally dry.
The division isn't cleared. At the very least there is Condit and there are new guys coming up. Division clearing is a myth.
Conduit is MAYBE the only one left, but think about it. Who else would there be? I don't think Kampmann could beat GSP or Diego Sanchez. Nate Diaz? not a chance, if you think about it, theres not really anyone else for GSP to fight at the moment other than shields and maybe a Penn rematch cuz IMO the way he just obliterated Hughes and if he can get his takedown defense up like it used to be, then hes got a shot. Penn didnt show up to fight either of his two gsp matches
Sorry but i just want to add, Thiago Alves rematch with GSP would actually be a completely different fight and I think I'd like to see that fight more than any other at WW for GSP
No it would be the same fight Alves just got Fitched, he hasnt improved enough. GSP will put him on his back for the entire fight.
Agreed. It has a lot to do with why Hardy got all hyped up and got a shot. I never thought he was deserving of a shot (still 2 fights away). The WW div is dry
Has GSP said he has no interest fighting Silva? Going on what Silva has said, it is he who has no interest fighting GSP. He said he would go down to WW to fight GSP and we're still waiting for him.
Reality, GSP IS the Best WW and Silva is the Best MW. And if you put a Best WW Against the Best MW most likely the WW is going to lose that is just reality....
Plus, A. Silva already beat some of the best LHW with ease so... I don't really think GSP would have a good chance. May be 30% at the most.
Silva was on his way my friend but Dana said he ain't fightin GSP now after the 112 incident and GSP then said he did not want to fight AS until he is ready to retire. Thats what was said and AS was ready to cut to WW but Dana wouldn't give him the shot at GSP. Dana was protecting the most popular fighter at the time and GSP was very happy to keep it that way until he is ready to complete his career.
Yea...silva should totally cut like 50 lbs at 36 years old before GSP cuts like 10 at 29 or 30 to fight at MW right azzkika? Sound fair to me.
GSP doesnt want any part of this, if he did it would have happened by now. But we're more likely to see GSP penn 4 and shields GSP 2 before we see that fight.
wen you put an amazing athlete/wrestler against an amazing striker with some of the worst TD defense, the wrestler will probably win
I agree with you 100% those rematches are getting old at this point. He just doesn't want any part of A.S whatsoever.
Dude, can you stop copy pasting you're posts!? Really annoying...
Anyway, I agree, seems like DW is trying to force something both of the fighters arent really interested in. GSP is still young by MMA standards, he still wants to fight in WW. Also, as someone pointed out, he would make a small MW, hes only 5'10 and AS, for instance, is 6'2. He would need to gain a lot of weight which isnt possible "over a day" as DW seems to think, specially if you want to stay in top shape.
I think the promoters want that fight because the fans want that fight. The fighters themselves seem content in being champions of theire division without the need to prove whos better than the other...
I think a lot of fans still don't understand the weight issue.
I got Bj's speed and technique winning over Fitch's lay & prey and chin. Then we can see Bj vs GSP 3 at Aloha Stadium in Hawaii which can seat at least 40,000
Now that Fitch's boyfriend Kos has lost, Fitch can now fight for the title. I hope BJ destroys him.
Fitch probably deserved the rematch before Kos but yea I agree with you. Part of me wants Fitch to win too though so I can see Dana squirm.
Best case scenario would be for GSP to beat shields and move up leaving the WW division to fight it out for the belt tournament style.
BJ Penn's Achilles heel, DOMINATE wrestlers. John Fitch = DOMINATE wrestler.
On paper, this one looks to be a slow grinding defeat for BJ. Hope I'm wrong and it has more excitement and surprises than I think.
Well GSP has already beat Penn and Fitch, so I think he should move up to Middleweight and fight Silva if he wins.
What about Carlos Condit? Martin Kampamann? New guys we don't know about yet? There are still plenty of fights for GSP at WW.
True but they're not exactly top contenders right now. I'd rather see GSP move up to fight Silva while the opportunity is there.
As a fan of Penn, even I don't want to see a rematch with gsp quite yet , if he gets through fitch. There are soo many interesting fights for bj at 170, I wanna see him work his way back to a gsp rematch, not be handed one again cause he'sa legend, . Can you imagine the wars between penn vs alves, condit, hardy etc? I wanna see those matches It'll be a good test of his skills , after that a revenge match with gsp would be great.
This is favortism.
I fail to understand how Penn could just show up in the 170 division, have a 21 second fight with (what-is-now, only) a gatekeeper and be given a contender fight, with the winner of that getting The Champ.
Who else gets this kind of treatment?
Penn is 3 & 3 in his last six fights. This would make his third title match in five fights, fourth in seven; with only one of those fights being a title defense. This is out of whack with reality. Again, who else gets this kind of treatment?
And who will the fight be against, GSP? Or will the title be vacated and Penn (or Fitch, for that matter, because DW has not addressed the question in terms of the GSP/Silva fight) be allowed to fight...whomever is the next contender behind Fitch?
Either way, it's all pretty dubious. I just don't think that Penn deserves or has earned, what is being offered to him. And you just know, that Dana is pulling for Fitch to lose. The whole thing leaves me torn. On the one hand I'd like to see Fitch win, as a big FU to DW. On the other hand, I'd like to see Penn win, face GSP and be made to "quit" again.
@WingChun
Who else gets this treatment? Randy Couture. Btw I like Randy so I'm not hating.
wang wat abot lesnar. bj has the best hands in mma. he leve fitchs face lukin like a crash site
It's not favoritism. When Dana uses phrases like "Let's face it, the reality is..." before making a point, he can't be wrong!
Naw but seriously BJ needs to fight atleast one more time after this. Depending on how he does, I'd like to see him go up against a guy like Thiago Alves (always wanted to see that fight). Two fights against former title challengers should be enough.
I agree that Penn does not deserve a title shot if he beats Fitch. If he was coming up as current LW champ, then it would make sense--but as you mentioned, he just lost two at LW, and then suddenly, he is one fight from contention?
I wonder Penn would do against others in the WW division--fights I would be interested in. Like Alves or Condit.
Amen.
i dont get how when GSP beat koscheck they said kos would never get another shot at him. but if BJ wins he'll get a shot. kinda makes no sense to me. I know BJ was the dominant LW champ but still doesnt warrant another shot
What we have here are two forces fighting each other.
On one side, you have the legitimate rankings, which are earned, and on the side, you have Dana White's desire to have the easiest fight to promote.
In other words Fitch will be the number 1 contender, will most likely face Condit or Kampman for vancant title