Former #1 contender Jon Fitch made a strong statement tonight, utterly dominating and winning by unanimous decision against Brazilian Paulo Thiago in the final fight of UFC 100.

Getting an early takedown to open the fight, Jon Fitch found himself threatened by an arm-in guillotine from full guard. Fitch stayed calm and proceeded to escape the submission, only to end up defending a D'arce choke.

Fitch escaped by the 1:45 mark and scored with elbows then tried to attack Thiago's back.

Fitch quickly got on top in round two and stayed there or on Thiago's back for most of the round.

Exhausted going into the third, Thiago gave up a takedown after thirty seconds into the third. Soon Thiago found himself defending submission attempts from a Fitch who'd taken his back. Thiago slammed him backwards into the mat, reversed position and started working for a choke. Soon he was back in guard. Soon after that, Fitch had a figure four on his back and worked for a rear naked choke as time ran down in the fight.

A fight widely billed as a revenge match for the American Kickboxing Academy's Jon Fitch against the man who KO'd his teammate Josh Koscheck in February, saw

Thiago, 11-0 going into the fight, found himself hurtled from complete obscurity after beating the popular Josh Koscheck. But he remained something of an enigma going into the fight. Many saw his KO win over Koscheck as a fluke.

Others speculated that Thiago was the second coming of Rameau Thierry Sokoudjou, the Cameroonean fighter who entered PRIDE a 2-1 unknown and left the storied promotion owning KO wins over highly regarded Brazilians Ricardo Arona and Antonio Rogerio Nogueira.

For Fitch it was merely the second fight on a comeback trail after his loss to champ Georges St. Pierre at UFC 87. 9-1 in the UFC going into this fight, Fitch had a lot to lose and not a lot to gain.