Sherdog’s Top 10: Greatest Welterweights

7. Jon Fitch

At the same time that Georges St. Pierre was going on his legendary run of dominance, another UFC welterweight was doing the exact same thing. Fitch went on an amazing run in the UFC from 2005 until 2011, with 13 emphatic victories, one draw against living legend B.J. Penn and one loss. That loss, of course, was to St. Pierre, who left no doubt in 2008 who the superior fighter was. Fitch matched St. Pierre in terms of grappling, cardio, toughness, and intelligence, but St. Pierre was the far superior striker, which he used to dominate the fight. Still, in that time Fitch had beaten Thiago Alves twice, Diego Sanchez, Brock Larson, Josh Burkman, Roan Carneiro, Paulo Thiago, Mike Pierce, Akihiro Gono and Ben Saunders.

A 12-second knockout loss to Johny Hendricks at the end of 2011 seemed to signal the end of Fitch's high-level success, and he then lost by decision to Demian Maia before being promptly dumped by the UFC, as Dana White never liked Fitch or his grinding grappling style. Fitch pondered retirement after being submitted in World Series of Fighting by Josh Burkman of all people, but luckily he persevered, and engineered a highly unlikely six-fight unbeaten streak from 2015 to 2020, with victories not only over tough veterans like Joao Zeferino and Brian Foster, but great names like Yushin Okami, Jake Shields and Paul Daley. Fitch also had a draw against reigning Bellator welterweight champion Rory MacDonald, even if most, myself included, felt MacDonald barely edged it out. Keep in mind that Fitch was 41 years old for that last one! He finally retired after a submission loss to Neiman Gracie, never having become world champion of a major organization due to Georges St. Pierre, but with a great career featuring legendary longevity.

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