Jon Fitch and others released from UFC contracts

We reported last night that Jacob Volkmann announced that he had been released from his UFC contract after his loss to Bobby Green at UFC 156. Well, it looks like the UFC has released 16 more fighters, including former number one welterweight contender Jon Fitch.

According to MMAFighting:

Former welterweight contender Jon Fitch was among the 16 UFC fighters who were released from the promotion on Tuesday.

UFC president Dana White also confirmed with MMAFighting.com that the following fighters were also let go: Wagner Prado, Mike Russow, Jacob Volkmann, Vladimir Matyushenko, Che Mills, Jay Hieron, Terry Etim, Paul Sass, Jorge Santiago, Mike Stumpf, Simeon Thoresen, C.J. Keith, Motonobu Tezuka, Josh Grispi and Ulysses Gomez.

All of of the fighters were coming off losses in their respective fights. Fitch was (1-2-1) in his last four fights with the draw coming against BJ Penn at UFC 127. Fitch was completed dominated by Demian Maia in his last outing at UFC 156, losing via unanimous decision with UFC President Dana White saying “Fitch got Fitched” after the fight. White was referring to the fight style that Fitch has used to dominate the welterweight division most of the time by using a grinding top control style without doing a tremendous amount of damage.

Fitch will be 35 years old in a couple of days which may have played a part in the decision as it seems he may be on the downside of his career at this point. It’ll be interesting to see if he’s picked up by the Bellator MMA promotion as he’s still a very good welterweight.

Stay tuned to ProMMAnow.com for more UFC news and coverage.