It's hard to remember a time when Jon Fitch wasn't a top ten welterweight. After years and years spent ranked #2 behind Georges St. Pierre, Fitch was knocked out by Johny Hendricks at UFC 141. Having rebounded from that loss with a highly entertaining win over Erick Silva at UFC 153 this past October, Fitch is back on the winning track and still sees his name at the top end of the 170 pound rankings.

Even so, Jon isn't expecting a second shot at the welterweight title -- Fitch lost to GSP in August of 2008 -- to come in the new year:

"I think a shake-up could have happened if Johny Hendricks would have gotten the title shot," Fitch told MMAjunkie.com (www.mmajunkie.com). "I think right now it looks like 'GSP' will probably defeat Diaz. The way it looks, I think there's a strong possibility the fight after that will probably be Marquardt just because it's champion vs. champion."

But Fitch seems to have come to view his career differently, to where not getting that shot soon is not going to cause him too much stress:

"I think one of the mistakes I made in the past was thinking about what this next fight is going to bring me rather than just focusing on the fight, itself," Fitch admitted. "Throw all of my attention, all my energy, into one fight at a time and make sure I get the most out of that one fight. I think that showed. When I do that, that's what happened in the last fight. If I continue that process, it's going to be a lot more great fights like that."

...

"This is a big thing. I need the money. I need the fight. I need to perform, and I love what I do. The motivation is that in itself."

Fitch's label as a "boring fighter" for many years kept him away from a second shot at GSP, but if he turns in more performances like the one against Silva, it isn't hard to see him getting another chance to become champion.