Jon Fitch vs. Paulo Thiago Possible For UFC 100
by Scott Haber on Mar 14, 2009 3:08 AM EDT
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PrintMMA Mania reports that a welterweight bout featuring former title contender Jon Fitch, and Brazilian prospect Paulo Thiago is in the processed of being finalized for July's UFC 100 in Las Vegas:
Former number one welterweight contender Jon Fitch is in talks to possibly return to the Octagon against undefeated submission specialist Paulo Thiago at UFC 100 from the Mandalay Bay Events Center in Las Vegas, Nevada, on July 11.
Bout agreements have not been signed at this time; however, both sides appear to be open to the 170-pound contest.
Fitch (18-3, 9-1 UFC) is one of the most successful fighters in the UFC's 170-lb division, and a unanimous decision beating he took at the hands of Georges St. Pierre in their title fight at UFC 87 is the only blemish on his 10 fight record in the Octagon. Combining dominant wrestling with a solid submission game, heavy ground-and-pound, and an improved striking arsenal, Fitch has proven nearly unstoppable at welterweight if it weren't for the division's current French-Canadian king. Most recently, Fitch took a lopsided decision victory over submission specialist Akihiro Gono at January's UFC 94 in a bout that ended up on the prelim card, likely due to Fitch's much-publicized contract dispute with the UFC which led to his firing and re-hiring over the course of 24 hours.
Paulo Thiago (11-0, 1-0 UFC) is undefeated in his MMA career, and although known mostly for his submission game, he shocked the world in one of the first huge upsets of 2009 by knocking out perennial 170-lb contender Josh Koscheck at UFC 95 in a fight that many saw as an easy win for Koscheck. In Fitch, Thiago will not only be facing a former title contender and a UFC veteran with 10 fights-worth of Octagon experience, but also an American Kickboxing Academy training partner and close friend of Koscheck who will surely be looking to avenge the loss to Thiago.
The odds are stacked against the Brazilian again, but then again, we saw what happened the last time he was considered such a huge underdog.
The current rumored UFC 100 card includes:
- Brock Lesnar (c) vs. Frank Mir (c)
UFC Heavyweight Championship Unification - Georges St-Pierre (c) vs. Thiago Alves
UFC Welterweight Championship - Michael Bisping vs. Dan Henderson
- Stephan Bonnar vs. Mark Coleman
- Yoshihiro Akiyama vs. Alan Belcher
- Jon Jones vs. Jake O'Brien
- Dong-Hyun Kim vs. Jonathan Goulet
- Matt Grice vs. Shannon Gugerty
- Jon Fitch vs. Paulo Thiago
The FanPosts are solely the subjective opinions of Bloody Elbow readers and do not necessarily reflect the views of Bloody Elbow editors or staff.
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No way. You have to look at the way heis winning to see if he is ready for that kind of fight. We know he landed a lucky shot on Kos because that was his first KO/TKO in 10 fights. This guys is a submission guy. If he lands another lucky shot on Fitch it doesn’t mean he’s ready for GSP IMO.
Anyway, Fitch destroys this guy so it’s a non issue.
Lucky shot twice?
Please.
If Fitch gets caught with an uppercut, it’s not lucky. Basically Fitch is on notice that his power is for real.
If Thiago KO’s/TKO’s Fitch, he’s the #1 contender in my eyes.
Everyone says Thiago’s JJ game is strong but he didn’t even have to show any of it vs Kos. He’ll be dangerous.
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He didn’t have to show it?
Dude, you do realize he was getting blasted on his feet all round by Kos and was in trouble towards the end when he caught him right? It was def quite lucky. If you think Thiago has power and skill on his feet you need to re-watch that fight. He exhibited awful stand up the whole time to the point me and everyone else watching were probably thinking “It’s a matter of time before he goes to sleep”.
I’ll give him props for the win, but it was definitely a huge upset and lucky IMO. Kos should win that fight 99/100.
I agree...
that we haven’t seen too much of Thiago’s game, but he was hardly getting blasted on all round. If you look at the fight, and pay attention, Kos only lands a few shots, and Paulo seems unphased for the most part… I don’t think he was completely comfortable on his feet, but then again that could’ve been UFC jitters, etc…
Kos’s striking was being overstated by Rogan as he was winging fundamentally unsound haymakers from halfway cross the ring… atleast thats what it seemed like to me.
I don't think there's anything as a lucky win
At the end of the day we have to stop assessing whether or not a win is ‘lucky or not. Although most of the blogosphere doesn’t consider Thales Leites the number one contender at MW but in the eyes of the UFC he ‘won’ a number one contenders fight against Nate Marquardt.
if we keep saying certain wins are ‘lucky’ then we can pretty much make an excuse for every win. “lucky punch”, “lucky submission”, “split decision” etc….
It’s like saying Rashad Evans ‘would have’ lost to Tito Ortiz. There can be asterisks on almost every fight.
Winning on point deductions really does taint a win in my eyes. Drawing because of point deductions is even worse.
A man should never waste an opportunity to keep his mouth shut.
The points are deducted for a reason.
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by Richard Wade on Mar 16, 2009 12:53 AM EDT up reply actions
The fact that a penalty occurred to cause a point deduction has to affect the judges cards, and I cannot imagine it would be in favor of the fighter losing the point. If the other fighter is still losing on the cards before the deduction, I don’t consider that a good win if the deducted point made the difference.
A man should never waste an opportunity to keep his mouth shut.
Why does Joe Silva hate Paulo so much? Brutal first two fights.
by Derek Suboticki on Mar 14, 2009 1:54 PM EDT reply actions
After you beat a top dog like Kos you gotta give him some one in the same caliber, questionable stoppage and all.
Not if your Jon Jones
Jake O’Brien isn’t exactly a step up from Stephan Bonnar. You could argue that Bonnar was coming back from the injuries and time off and therefore this is a step up. But I think the UFC wants to build Jon Jones up. More odds of having “Black on Black Crime” in a main event yet.
Jon Jones certainly does show promise though. The Jones vs Bonnar fight was very entertaining.
It doesn’t appear Joe Silva wants to build Paulo in similar fashion.
ZENKO'd
Anybody else think the UFC is teeing this guy up for a stretcher ride?
TBH this matchup pisses me off. We have all these totally uninteresting and largely indistinguishable (but apparently marketable) British fighters at 155 and 170 who stink up the place for 15 minutes and get hand-fed opponents, and a kid with as much promise as Thiago Paulo is basically getting thrown into the deep end right upon arrival. I call bullshit.
I’m sick of seeing the entire UK crop get to act like Marcus Davis is the “final boss” of the welterweight division. Let one of THEM get the crumpets kicked out of them by a top 5 WW fighter already.
Even someone they wanted to promote as a contender wouldn’t have to fight Kos and then Fitch. There’s no way he’s ready.
/rant
oops
I just totally talked about indistinguishable fighters and then called him “Thiago Paulo”
:-O
I’m just so used to the modular “Thiago ____” name.
So there conceivably could be a Thiago Thiago?
A man should never waste an opportunity to keep his mouth shut.
More like actually is a Thiago Thiago.
"I see him beating Anderson Silva. I see him picking him apart. Him at a 131 years old...(trails off)." - Tito on Belfort at Affliction:DOR
by Rundownloser on Mar 14, 2009 2:30 PM EDT up reply actions
Haha, look at his opponents name, the announcers must have had a lot of fun with that.
Thiago squared vs. Maicon Naicon. The only fight both have them have ever been in.
A man should never waste an opportunity to keep his mouth shut.
Two men enter… both immediately retire.
by Derek Suboticki on Mar 14, 2009 4:54 PM EDT up reply actions
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