Fitch: BJ hasn’t shown the cardio to last with me
Fitch has a kevlar chin and a black belt in BJJ under Dave Camarillo. His UFC record of 13-1 is one…
Fitch has a kevlar chin and a black belt in BJJ under Dave Camarillo. His UFC record of 13-1 is one of the most impressive ever run up in the Octagon, and with the exception of a loss to St-Pierre, the best pound-for-pound fighter in the world by acclamation, he has won every fight he’s been in for more than eight years, over opponents like Diego Sanchez, Paulo Thiago and Akihiro Gono.
After an early run of mauling people — four of his first six UFC fights ended by knockout or submission — he hasn’t finished anyone in his last eight fights. Just two of his first seven UFC fights were even placed on the main card of a pay-per-view, so he was barely able to support himself as a fighter during much of the time he was running up one of the longer undefeated streaks the promotion has yet seen.
“I’m extremely hard to finish and I have a huge gas tank, and historically that’s a big problem for B.J. Penn. If he doesn’t have the cardio to keep up with my pace, there’s no way he’s going to last.”
“If I went out there and tried to match BJ’s timing, or match BJ’s speed, it would never happen. And a lot of guys fall into that trap. It’s more about setting your pace and dictating the action, dictating what’s going on in the fight. That way you’re not reacting to things, you’re making the faster guy react to you. If you’re good enough you can set traps, make them react the wrong way.”
Jon Fitch will face B.J. Penn on February 27 at UFC 127 in Australia.
