Jon Fitch’s Reappearing Act

Jon Fitch is tired of laboring in the shadows. In spite of being on the short list of most accomplished welterweights of all-time and in spite of being on a 6-2 run against credible opposition since departing the Ultimate Fighting Championship in early 2013, Fitch knows his post-UFC exploits may have flown under the radar of casual MMA fans. As the 40-year-old former Purdue University wrestler prepares to make his Bellator MMA debut this Saturday in San Jose, California, he laments the promotional shortcomings of his previous employer, the World Series of Fighting/Professional Fighters League.

“One of the reasons I wanted to leave PFL was that I didn’t feel they were on the ball with promotion,” Fitch told Sherdog.com. “A lot of [fans], I think, thought I was retired, even though I won a world title. But now, [Bellator President] Scott Coker is doing a great job with promotion and I’m already seeing results from being promoted well. People are talking about me more, I’m getting more follows on my social media, more interviews, there are just more eyeballs on me.”

Even more than the publicity considerations, Fitch claims he moved to Bellator because he believes it will be better able to keep him busy. Always a fairly active fighter, Fitch found it frustrating that the WSOF failed to get him into the cage with suitable opponents on as regular a basis as he would have liked.

“The Jake Shields fight, I trained for an entire summer and then the fight got pushed back [from Nov. 12] to New Year’s Eve,” Fitch said. “It was really frustrating to put that kind of work in and then have to wait, especially when you’re dieting and watching your weight the whole time. That’s a really long time to be in training for a fight.”

Fitch’s opponent at Bellator 199, Paul Daley, is a fellow UFC veteran, but aside from overlapping chronologically, their career paths with the promotion could not be more different. While Fitch is remembered as a longtime divisional standout who won his first eight fights before earning a title tilt with Georges. St. Pierre, Daley’s three-fight UFC run is most notable for how it ended. At UFC 113 in May 2010, after being taken down and controlled on the ground for three rounds by Josh Koscheck, a frustrated “Semtex” took a swing at the four-time NCAA All-American wrestler after the final bell. That sucker punch earned Daley the wrath of UFC President Dana White and a lifetime ban from the promotion, one which shows no signs of being lifted eight years later.

Fitch says he never thought much about the possibility of fighting Daley during their respective UFC runs, even less so when he saw the ease with which Koscheck, his fellow wrestler and onetime American Kickboxing Academy teammate, handled him. Now that the matchup is a reality, Fitch believes the British knockout artist has done little to shore up his weaknesses but still maintains some of his strengths.

“In some ways, his wrestling has actually gotten worse,” Fitch said with a chuckle, “but still, the one thing is, power doesn’t really fade. Speed does, cardio can a little bit, your chin definitely does, but power … even if you’re 65 years old, you can still crack. So where he’s [always been] dangerous, he’s still dangerous, and he’s put together some good wins. He’s a dangerous person right now.”

Even though his safest, most straightforward route to victory would be to look for any opportunity to take down his striking-oriented opponent and keep him there, Fitch is wary of putting all of his strategic eggs into a single basket.

“I definitely have my strategies and what I like to do, but I don’t think it’s smart to only have one objective all the time,” Fitch said. “It’s too easy to defend when you know exactly what the other guy is going to try and do to you. If you do the same thing over and over again, it’s too easy to prepare for it and game plan against it, so what I’m going to do is just put pressure on him, because I can fight a lot of different ways while still keeping him under pressure. If I keep pressure on him, things will open up. If the takedowns come easy, then they come easy. If I’m able to use my length and my speed and my standup abilities, I’ll use those, too.”

The typically brash and outspoken Daley has been fairly understated in the lead-up to the fight. Daley’s most quotable jab at Fitch so far was his remark that while Fitch is a “tough wrestler,” he is an “old, tough wrestler.” Fitch laughs off the quip, as well as any notion that he is over the hill, but admits he has been reminded a few times recently, not of his age so much as his tenure in the sport.

“No, I don’t [feel old] at all,” Fitch said. “A lot of the time I feel like I’m in my early 20s [physically], but then we’ve got guys who train with us now that I have pictures of as kids. Mark Climaco, who is fighting on Saturday, as well -- Josh Thomson and I have pictures with him from when he was like 8 years old. His mom took him to an appearance we did. He was a fan, he came and got pictures with us, and now he’s 21 or 22 and he’s fighting on the same card as me. It’s like ‘Wow, what’s going on? I guess I’m not 20 years old anymore.’”