WW's next title shot confirmed...

[tn94z]

Tweet

Dana White confirms UFC 117's Jon Fitch vs. Thiago Alves winner gets title shot
by MMAjunkie.com Staff on Aug 05, 2010 at 4:30 pm ET

SAN FRANCISCO – The winner of Saturday's UFC 117 co-main event between Jon Fitch (22-3 MMA, 12-1 UFC) and Thiago Alves (16-6 MMA, 9-3 MMA) will, in fact, get a shot at the title.

UFC president Dana White confirmed the expected plans during today's pre-UFC 117 press conference at the Hilton San Francisco Fisherman's Wharf hotel in California.

The winner will be in line after Josh Koscheck, who meets current champ and "The Ultimate Fighter 12" rival coach Georges St-Pierre at a tentatively planned Dec 11 UFC 124 event.

UFC 117 takes place at Oracle Arena in Oakland, Calif., and the night's main card airs on pay-per-view.

The Fitch vs. Alves fight technically is a rematch of their 2006 meeting at UFC Fight Night 5, which Fitch won via second-round TKO. Since then, Alves is 7-1, and the lone came to champ St-Pierre at UFC 100, his most recent bout. Fitch is 9-1 since that fight, and his lone loss also came to St-Pierre, at UFC 87.

They initially were scheduled to rematch at UFC 107 and then against at UFC 111 this past March, but the New Jersey State Athletic Control Board suspended Alves just two days before the planned bout due to a failed CT scan. Following the assessment, Alves underwent an MRI and an angiogram (an X-ray of blood vessels) in order to be cleared. Even the latest meeting seemed in jeopardy after reports surfaces of Alves' supposed inability to cut weight. However, his manager today told MMAjunkie.com (UFC blog for UFC news, UFC rumors, fighter interviews and event previews/recaps | MMAjunkie.com) that Alves weighs 177 pounds, is in good spirits, and will be on weight come Friday's weigh-ins.

Despite the delays, both fighters want a second shot at the belt. However, if Koscheck upsets St-Pierre, that'll force Fitch to fight his American Kickboxing Academy teammate – something he previously said he won't do – for the belt.

"He'll fight Koscheck," White flatly said today.

Fitch, though, said he's not looking past Alves and will address a possible fight with Koscheck once UFC 117 is over.

This fight is going to be GOOD!! Fitch dominated the first one but I think that Alves had huge issues cutting weight in that fight. It seems like he has the weight cut down a little better. I think that is the main question for this fight. I actually think Fitch may have the better chance of beating GSP because he can obviously take everything that GSP can dish out because he took a beating in their first fight.

If Fitch won, and Kos somehow won...I wonder what kind of mess that will make of the division? Fitch says if Kos wins, he is moving to MW but now Dana says that Fitch will fight Kos if it comes down to it. Drama in WW....

[2-Swole]

TweetWell I think it would be awesome to see AKA go head to head but I seriously can see an Alves Gsp rematch...

[Strella]

TweetI would take Alves but the fact that he hasn't fought in so long makes me lean towards Fitch. Either way i see GSp winning both fights then moving on to MW unless he is doing the olympic thing.