Fitch vs Gono At UFC 94
by Robert Sargent
Returning to competition after his gruelling defeat against George St. Pierre, top welterweight contender Jon Fitch will battle "The Japanese Sensation" Akihiro Gono at UFC 94, but the bout will curiously be on the untelevised undercard.
The odd decision to put this on the underard, with Fitch coming off of a main event title fight, comes a result of recent issues between the UFC and fighters over name rights.
Fitch, along with other top prospects Josh Koscheck, Cain Velasquez and Christian Wellisch, among others associated with the American Kickboxing Academy camp, were briefly fired or rumoured to be departing just over one month ago after disputes between UFC President Dana White and the fighters over the rights to the names and likenesses of the competitors for the UFC Undisputed 2009 video game and other future UFC games.
Though the turmoil quickly subsided, Fitch (17-3-0, 1 NC) still finds himself going from the main event at UFC 87, where he lost an all-out war to Georges "Rush" St. Pierre in a UFC Welterweight Championship bout, to untelevised undercard duty against Gono (29-13-7), who is coming off of a razor-thin Split Decision defeat to Dan "The Outlaw" Hardy at UFC 89.
Prior to the defeat to St. Pierre, Fitch had won 15 straight fights, including eight inside the UFC. Every one of his UFC victories was against a noteworthy opponent, including a TKO win over current top contender Thiago "Pitbull" Alves and a submission victory over heavily decorated Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu Black Belt Roan Carneiro. Other wins over the likes of Diego "Nightmare" Sanchez and Chris "The Professor" Wilson led to Fitch's shot at the title, but he lost a lopsided, albeit extremely hard-fought, decision to St. Pierre.
Gono, on the other hand, is a Japanese legend. He has competed against many of the top fighters in the welterweight and middleweight divisions, and has bested a number of them. He has been defeated just five times in the last nine years, and holds wins over the likes of Ivan Salaverry, Crosley Gracie, Daniel Acacio, Hector Lombard and Yuki Kondo. Gono's biggest win to date took place at PRIDE Bushido 12 in 2006, where he submitted future DREAM Middleweight Champion Gegard "Young Vagabond" Mousasi with an armbar.
Though Gono has only two fights in the UFC thus far, and suffered a close defeat in the aforementioned bout with Hardy, his UFC debut against Tamdan "The Barn Cat" McCrory was an instant introduction to the charismatic Japanese star. From his flamboyant entrance to his extremely impressive and unique armbar submission of McCrory, Gono earned himself many fans at UFC 78. He looks to rebound from the loss to Hardy with an impressive performance against the former #1 contender in the welterweight division, Fitch.
If the fight hits the ground, which it is likely to do, the battle between Fitch's outstanding wrestling skills and Gono's submission wizardry will be on full display. Unfortunately, unless it makes the telecast due to other quick finishes, most people won't get to see what will surely be an excellent fight.
Elsewhere on the card, Karo "The Heat" Parisyan, fresh off of his last-minute withdrawal from fighting Yoshiyuki "Zenko" Yoshida earlier this year, will face another rising Asian star when he battles South Korea's Dong Hyun "Stun Gun" Kim.
Parisyan (18-5-0) was once a powerhouse of the welterweight division until an injury robbed him of his title shot, but he has looked woefully outmatched in many of his recent fights, and losses to Diego Sanchez and Thiago Alves derailed his plans for another run at a title shot. Parisyan holds wins over Shonie Carter, Nick Diaz, Chris Lytle, Matt Serra, Nick Thompson, Drew Fickett, Josh Burkman and Ryo Chonan. However, he has not managed to finish an opponent since the fight with Thompson in April of 2006, and looked positively terrible in his battle with Chonan.
By contrast, Kim (11-0-1) is undefeated and has looked incredibly impressive in all of his recent bouts, save for the latter stages of his Split Decision win over Matt Brown at UFC 88. Kim won five straight fights by knockout, including one over former DEEP Champion Hidehiko Hasegawa, before battling Hasegawa a second time to a Draw just prior to his UFC debut. In that debut, Kim completely mauled Jason Tan for two rounds and knocked him out with elbows in round three.
With Parisyan coming off of a loss to Alves and the very controversial last-minute withdrawal from the fight with Yoshida - which many people expected Yoshida to handily win - he has a lot to prove and even more to lose if he comes up short against Kim. For Kim, he must establish himself in the UFC and prove that his lacklustre performance against Matt Brown was out of character.
Finally, TUF Season Five Winner Nate Diaz will take on Clay "The Carpenter" Guida in a lightweight bout between two of the division's top prospects for the coming year.
Diaz (10-2-0) is undefeated in the UFC and has scored wins over Alvin Robinson, Kurt Pellegrino and Josh Neer. His tactical superiority on the ground has wreaked havoc on his opponents, who are unable to keep the slightly-built Diaz down for long. When they do, Diaz's array of submissions keeps them guessing.
Guida (24-9-0) has had an up-and-down tenure in the UFC, but always seems to be involved in Fights of the Night whether he wins or loses. Judges have not at all been kind to Guida, as they awarded Tyson Griffin with a controversial Split Decision when Guida battled him in June of 2007, then nearly robbed Guida again when one judge bizarrely scored Guida's August 2007 bout with Marcus Aurelio in Aurelio's favour. However, Guida has now won two straight fights and could once again position himself for a possible title shot in the future.
UFC 94 is headlined by a UFC Welterweight Championship rematch between champion George "Rush" St. Pierre and current UFC Lightweight Champion "The Prodigy" BJ Penn.
