Fitch vs. Gono deemed as Prelim bout for UFC 94
By wookalarman on Dec 22, 2008
Earlier today, the UFC released the official bout order slated for “UFC 94: St Pierre vs. Penn II.” The event is scheduled to take place on January 31st at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas.
The main event of the card is a clash which needs no introduction, a clash that one would only read about in Greek Mythology; Georges St. Pierre vs. B.J. Penn will easily be considered one of the biggest fights in UFC history. Forget Couture/Lesnar, this one holds all the marbles.
In what may seem as a surprising move, a welterweight bout between Jon Fitch and Akihiro Gono has been ranked among the untelevised preliminary bouts. Uh oh, here come the conspiracy theories!
In all seriousness, this should in no way seem as a slight to Jon Fitch. This is not Dana White trying to get back at him for the video game contract debacle which went on recently. Simply put– this is a business decision in an attempt to score the highest ratings possible. The UFC seems to be devising their bout order based off of fan base, marketability, and previous fight history. This apparent scheme of ordering and matchmaking is not a new concept.
So what’s another “questionable” bout to make the main card over Fitch? First instincts would say the light heavyweight bout between Stephan Bonnar and Jon Jones will be criticized. On the contrary, there is a lot of hype behind Jones and it certainly showed in his UFC 87 meeting with Andre Gusmao. Bonnar is a guy who needs no introduction. He will be making his comeback to the Octagon after a fifteen month layoff. We all so passionately remember him from his TUF 1 Finale bout with Forrest Griffin which was later dubbed as “putting modern mixed martial arts on the map.”
Check out the card and make your own arguments (if any). The entire card is as follows after the jump:
MAIN CARD
- Welterweight champ Georges St. Pierre vs. lightweight champ B.J. Penn (for welterweight title)
- Lyoto Machida vs. Thiago Silva
- Stephan Bonnar vs. Jon Jones
- Karo Parisyan vs. Dong Hyun Kim
- Nate Diaz vs. Clay Guida
PRELIMINARY CARD
- Jon Fitch vs. Akihiro Gono
- Manny Gamburyan vs. Thiago Tavares
- John Howard vs. Chris Wilson
- Jake O’Brien vs. Christian Wellisch
- Matt Arroyo vs. Dan Cramer
Comments (4)
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[...] MMA OpinionFitch vs. Gono deemed as Prelim bout for UFC 94 [...]
I see the Fitch fight going right back up to the main card as soon as Karo decides to drop out, haha. Either way, Fitch has been getting more exposure than a couple of the guys on the main card like Parisyan and Bonnar. Don’t get me wrong, I think Bonnar is awesome, but he hasn’t been on the radar as much as Fitch or Manny. And the Machida fight…I’m putting down $20 that it will go to decision. ZZZ
a lot of mma sites have an article about this fitch/gono undercard “travesty” and yours is the only one I have read so far that actually makes sense. Thank you for using your brain to actually think things through and apply a little common sense before automatically assuming that the big bad UFC is out to get fighters like Jon Fitch. I found the link to this article through fightopinion and I have never been to your site before but now plan on coming back regularly since it appears you are not the type that tries to manufacture controveries around non-issues like other sites.
Thanks
Ungh, conspiracy theories, I know. Although I find it slightly funny that he’ll be on the undercard of a PPV headlined by the last guy he fought. And he’s facing Gono, which should be a good fight. My company actually made Jon Fitch guest editor this week. You can check it out here:
http://www.rooftopcomedy.com/staffpicks
But to echo @jj, thanks for not getting on the UFC/Dana White is an A-hole/conspiracy bandwagon.