Exclusive: Thiago Alves out of UFC 107 bout vs. Jon Fitch
A rematch between highly-ranked UFC welterweights Jon Fitch and Thiago Alves planned for UFC 107 on Dec. 12 in Memphis, Tenn. will not take place as scheduled, FiveOuncesOfPain.com has learned.
Five Ounces of Pain was informed early Friday morning that Alves was forced to withdraw from the fight due to an unspecified injury and that discussions to secure a replacement have already begun.
The news of Alves falling off the card comes as yet another blow to the UFC’s plans for UFC 107, as season 10 coaches of The Ultimate Fighter Rashad Evans and Quinton “Rampage” Jackson had originally been rumored to headline the event.
However, plans for Evans vs. Jackson were scuttled after Jackson accepted a role in the upcoming A-Team film adaptation. UFC officials quickly moved to transfer a planned lightweight title fight between B.J. Penn and Diego Sanchez to headline its Dec. 12 pay-per-view event and the rematch between Fitch and Alves was added soon after to augment the card’s depth.
Alves, 16-6, has not fought since losing a unanimous decision to current UFC welterweight champion Georges St. Pierre this past June at UFC 100. Prior to the title fight, Alves had won seven consecutive bouts in the UFC.
Meanwhile, Fitch, also a former UFC welterweight title challenger, is 19-3 overall and has won two consecutive bouts following his title loss to St. Pierre at UFC 87 in August of 2008.
WTF!!!!!! Damn, Rampage dropping out has put the bad mojo of this whole event.
Horrible news, I was really looking forward to this fight. Here’s your chance to step in, Hughes.
This reminds me, where is St Pierre at? Is he hurt because I havent heard anything about his next fight. I know he wants Spider, but I really don’t see that happening. What about a catch weight with a smaller 185er kind of like Silva has done twice.
Great idea MoneyLine. Fitch vs. Hughes would be a good addition to any fight card.
Ain’t that a b.
Fitch/Hughes will have to do, I suppose.
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Rumble will step in again….
I was thinking the same thing, Karma for the UFC and bad luck??? Its like everyday someone is injured…
Hopefully Carlos Condit will be asked to fight here. It would be a great chance for him to step up the competition and I think he would offer a much tougher fight for Fitch than Hughes at this point in his career. Hughes is a great replacement fighter but in reality he has no chance of beating Fitch. Condit is probably as tough as Fitch as he proved in his last fight, and has very good submissions along with great kicks. I hope Condit gets it.
The ufc has two options that i think we the fans would not look at as a let down:
Jon Fitch vs. Matt Hughes
or
Jon Fitch vs. Paul Daley
I have this real funny feeling about Hughes. He shrugged off a potential match with Kos, which would be his highest profile fight at WW, and there is no way he is fighting GSP again any time soon. To me that leaves two things I think could happen, a fight with Dennis Hallman just to avenge the losses from earlier in his career, or a 3rd fight with BJ Penn early next year when BJ gets the itch to jump around again. Just a thought, not that I’m supporting it.
There are not a ton of options out there right now that are not committed to fights already, but I guess UFC could do some shuffling as alot of guys would already be training for upcoming fights. Paul Daley, Carlos Condit, and Mike Pierce would be the best bets for me.
I would really like the idea of Fitch Vs. Hughes. But then who would be the next top contender? The winner of Swick Vs Hardy or Fitch Vs. Hughes? I would definitely like to see Fitch or Swick Vs GSP
You haven’t heard anything? You “know” he wants Spider?
GSP injured his groin during the Alves match.
They are calling the the Swick-Hardy match at 105 a title-eliminator. The winner is likely to face GSP at UFC 109.
Rumble’s slated to fight Kos at 106, tho.
This sucks, woulda been great but I would love to see Hughes fight Fitch! There aren’t many others that would make a good fight for fitch who aren’t tied up or recovering.
I know he’s slated to fight at 106. It’s a joke man. I might be in the minority here but I haven’t been excited about Hughes fighting anyone in a looong time.