Fighters Only

Issue 169

August 2018

He’s got a lot of aliases, but there’s no doubt Jon Fitch is making a name for himself at Bellator

Tony Reid: You’ve just made your promotional debut with Bellator with a decisive win over Paul Daley at Bellator 198. How happy are you with the way the fight played out?

Jon Fitch: I wanted to find out if Paul Daley could swim in deep water. I wanted to make him work every minute of the fight and I didn’t think he could hold up under the pressure. I was looking to put him away.

You stated recently that you are in the business of winning titles. The word is out that you are in the scene now. How close are you to a title shot?

I am taking one fight at a time. Hopefully, there are people that want to see me fight for a title shortly after this fight. I hope my performance was on that level. Hopefully the people of San Jose and the people of Bellator want to see that.

You are new to the Bellator family. What was it that influenced your decision to sign with them?

I’ve watched Scott Coker from afar for a long time now. I like the way he promotes fights. I have known Scott for a while and I like him as a person. With Bellator being based here in San Jose that was a strong selling point as well. The Bay Area is a fighting area and San Jose is a fight town. People here get it. This place has always been great to me. It was a great pairing and great opportunity for me to fight in front of people who appreciate me fighting.

Bellator is in the middle of the Heavyweight Grand Prix, which has been really well received by the community. Would you be willing to compete if the company did a welterweight version?

It would be great! I think it is similar to the PRIDE tournaments. I like doing tournaments that aren’t strictly tied to the title. You still have your champion and win or lose the tournament they are still the champion. I like the feel of that. I don’t think anyone should be stripped or lose the title in a tournament. I think it adds to it to have a Grand Prix feel and I think the fans like it. It leaves champions as champions and the contenders as contenders.

You mentioned Scott Coker. He is well known for bringing that PRIDE pageantry to Bellator and back to MMA in general. Are you a fan of the big fight feel from week to week and event to event?

We are here to entertain ultimately. The fans like it. They feed off it.

They feed off the energy. I always like watching the big entrances in PRIDE, the big fireworks shows and all that.

You aren’t a big fan of nicknames but it looks recently like you are leaning toward ‘Bad Stylistic Matchup’. Are there any others that top the list?

That is one of the top choices there. I like ‘The King of Grind’ and O.G. ‘Original Grinder’ is a good one, as well.

You have competed at the top of the sport for nearly a decade. What fight from your career is your favorite?

The GSP, of course, was very memorable. I shot a documentary around that entire experience. But one of the top fights was the Erick Silva fight. Everything that surrounded that fight was memorable. Everybody was counting me out. He was supposed to be the next GSP. They sent me down to Brazil to lose. The crowd was screaming, ‘You are going to die’ in Portuguese. By the beginning of the third round the crowd was screaming my name. I had my Rocky 4 moment. I turned the crowd and the country to be on my side.

Has there been one fight that you wanted but which never materialized?

The biggest one was the GSP rematch. That leaves questions. I would have rather had the rematch and got beaten up really bad and at least known. I lost that fight and then won five in a row. I was promised a title shot and rematch after I beat Thiago Alves the second time. They didn’t give it to me. That was hard psychologically. I worked so hard to get there and I really thought I was in a position where I could have beat him.

You were one of the first fighters to stand up against the UFC for your individual rights. What made you stand your ground?

Part of it is my personality. If I see something that’s not right I’m not just going to sit back and not say anything. I could see that things weren’t right before I got into the UFC. Just because I got in wasn’t reason enough to keep my mouth shut and do what I’m told. I always knew that we were independent contractors. The promoter is supposed to work for the fighters. They are a service provider. Everything has been inversed and reversed and that’s not how it’s supposed to be. That is one of the reasons why pay is so low for fighters.

You recently turned 40. What inspires you to continue down the combat sports path?

I’m just trying to be better every day. I am trying to be better than the person I was the day before. Not just in the cage but as a person and as a father. I am just trying to improve all the time. Motivation comes and goes. If you discipline yourself and set up schedules and stick to those

schedules and stay disciplined you get results. You can’t just do things when you are motivated or inspired because you will only do them 50% of the time. You have to do it because you are disciplined and you set the schedule. You get up every day at 6 o’clock and cook eggs and eat them. You just do it. Some days you get up and you are excited to eat those eggs and other days you just hate it and you are miserable and the eggs are terrible. You just have to get up and do it. Being a good example to my kids is a huge driving factor. It’s easier to be disciplined when I know they are watching and when I know the results of my discipline are going to pay off and make sure they have a good life. They get good food, good clothes and they get to go to good schools.

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