Fight Ticker.com panel picks St. Pierre at UFC 87

I was on the FightTicker.com panel again making predictions for UFC 87. Here was my prediction for the Jon Fitch vs. Georges St. Pierre fight.

Everyone knows everything there is to know about GSP who has been in the
spotlight his entire UFC career so it’s time to shine the light on Jon Fitch.

Jon Fitch trains under “Crazy” Bob Cook, Javier Mendez, and Dave
Camarillo at the American Kickboxing Academy in San Jose, which is one of the
top MMA camps in the country featuring fighters such as Josh Koscheck, Trevor
Prangley, Josh Thomson, Cung Le, and Rich Crunkilton. He is a former Big Ten
wrestler from Purdue and got his MMA start under famous Pride fighter Tom
Erikson. He recently received his black belt in Guerrilla Jiu-Jitsu from Dave
Camarillo in July, which is a hybrid of judo and BJJ developed by Camarillo
himself.

Jon Fitch is one of the least known fighters in the
welterweight division and his first five fights, all wins by the way, were not
ever televised. His is extremely well rounded and his record shows that. Of his
17 wins, 4 are TKOs, 5 are submissions, and 7 are decisions. His win streak
stands at 15 straight fights and dates back over 5 years when he last lost to
Wilson Gouveia in December of 2002, fighting at 205lbs or two weight classes
higher than where he currently fights at.

Fitch holds notable wins over
Shonie Carter, Josh Burkman, Thiago Alves, Brock Larson, and Diego Sanchez. He
most recently defeated Team Quest fighter and IFL star Chris Wilson at UFC 82 in
an uninspiring unanimous decision to earn himself a title shot after winning
eight straight fights in the UFC.

Fitch is a very big welterweight but
lacks the explosiveness to beat a fighter like GSP. His toughness is a given and
he will not get finished but will more than likely lose a unanimous decision. He
will probably get outwrestled like his teammate Koscheck did last August with
GSP negating his biggest assets in takedowns and ground and pound. Fitch has
decent striking but lacks any sort of knock out power to defeat GSP. Fitch has
incredible submission defense, which was demonstrated in his fights with
Hironaka and Sanchez and that will keep him alive in this fight as GSP does
enough to pull of the unanimous decision victory and win (30-27) on all three
judges scorecards.

To read the others click here.