At the height of Jon Fitch's Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) career, his last name became a verb -- "Fitch'ed" -- a descriptive for fighters who had their momentum derailed in one-sided matches by one of world's top Welterweight grinders ... and contenders.

It wasn't always a flattering description. Despite being among the mixed martial arts (MMA) elite, Fitch had to string together 16 consecutive wins before UFC gave him a title shot against Georges St-Pierre in 2008.

Fitch doesn't want to wait that long for a another chance at the (now vacant) World Series of Fighting (WSOF) 170-pound title. Fitch earned an opportunity with consecutive wins against Marcelo Alfaya and Dennis Hallman, but was tapped by a "brutal" knee bar from Rousimar Palhares in Dec. 2014.

His next fight at WSOF 24, which will take place inside Foxwoods Resort Casino in Mashantucket, Conn., next weekend (Sat., Oct. 17, 2015), may be a shortcut back to contention, as Fitch will face off against another fighter who was known for his long periods of dominance inside the Octagon, Yushin "Thunder" Okami.

Fitch recently spoke with MMAmania.com about facing a dangerous -- and possibly much larger -- opponent, who will make his Welterweight debut for the promotion, in the night's main event.

First things first, though: Fitch gives a health update following that much talked about Palhares submission.

"The knee healed up well. I'm a little bit lucky with the injury -- nothing tore all the way through. I had a lot of small tears that all healed up on their own with scar tissue. I took a lot of time to strengthen the leg and get it as healthy as possible. It's back to as good as it was before. It's holding up for me fine."Given that Palhares was suspended and stripped of his title after fighting Jake Shields, Fitch admits to having "mixed feelings" about how it all went down, but says an athletic commission should have stepped in a long time ago.

"I don't feel it ever should have been allowed to get to this point. Joe Lauzon did a great video where he compared six of Palhares' submissions and all of them were well over an acceptable time limit for holding onto the submission. The commissions have done nothing. They've been completely impotent in their actions toward him, and I blame them."It's fair to argue that somebody could have done something sooner. It's also fair to argue that UFC did do something by cutting Palhares and that WSOF should have known it probably wouldn't do better bringing him into the fold.

"I called it. I told them a while ago it was bad idea (to sign Palhares), you shouldn't have done this, and now they're kind of eating it a little bit on the promotion end. They don't have a champion now, and they've got some guys who are not that happy about being forced to fight him. There's a psychological edge when you're worried about, 'What if he gets something and doesn't stop? What if he doesn't stop when the bell rings?'"The upshot is that Fitch stands to directly benefit from Palhares being stripped. In Fitch's mind, the main event with Okami could have even been bigger if the Palhares vs. Shields fight was further away.

"It hasn't been said definitively, but I think it's pretty obvious that it's (in) high contention for a title eliminator. I think if there would have been enough time in between the Shields fight (and this fight) to promote it right they might have made this to fill that void. Three months isn't enough time to promote a championship fight."Okami has a tough cut ahead of him to get down to 171 pounds or less, and in Fitch's mind that puts him at the advantage over a potentially much larger opponent.

"It's gonna be a tough fight regardless, but he's definitely going to have to be smaller than he normally is. I don't think he's going to be able to get back up to that 205 to 215 weight after a cut down to 170. He still could be high 90's, mid 90's, so he's going to be big and strong, but I definitely have more tools to bring to the table and I think I'm just a lot faster than he is."Fitch calls it a "big misnomer" that people think of him as a relentless grinding and wrestling style fighter, and that's not indicative of how he'll fight Okami on NBC Sports Network next weekend.

"I use pressure, but still use a lot of strikes, and I'm cutting people off at the pass (and) not allowing them to get where they want to get, and continually doing damage the entire time."Fitch cites his St-Pierre title fight as an example of how taking a bout with him can change your life.

"I think that I broke him in that fight. He never fought the same way again. He started fighting very safe, very cautious. He stopped finishing people. I think I got into his head that fight, and that's why I wanted to fight him again so bad. That first fight I had zero defense on the feet. Everything he threw landed."Since GSP went into self-imposed retirement not that long ago, I asked Fitch if he thinks we'll ever see the former champion back in an Octagon. His answer was somewhat surprising.

"I have my suspicions about him, why he might have left. I don't think he was happy with Zuffa, like a lot of fighters are not happy with them. I hope he let's his contract expire with them and is free and clear of them. He could come back and promote his own show in Canada like Mayweather does and make $20-$30 million a fight."Of course everybody can do better outside Zuffa when you're standing where Fitch is as one of the plantiffs named in a class action lawsuit, but the Indiana native says that association has been widely misunderstood by the media.

"There's a lot of people saying that it's just a few of us, the named plantiffs, that we're doing for monetary reasons. These people have no concept of what a class action lawsuit is. The class action lawsuit encompasses every Zuffa fighter that's fought for them. Every one that's fought for them unless they have written in and specifically declined to be part of the suit, they will get paid."Fitch and I also discussed appearance on the popular Discovery series "MythBusters" during the "Coffin Punch" myth. And I was surprised to learn that he wasn't the original choice to be on the show.

"It was right before the fight with GSP, so there was some good promotional buzz around me at the time, but they came calling my management for access to Forrest Griffin. Griffin was very popular though, I think he might have even been champion at the time, so he wasn't going to be on the show for free. When my management gave them a price, they said, 'Oh no that's too much.' They said 'If you can't afford him, we have Jon Fitch.'"Although he laughs about being the second option now, he believes it's an ideal to scenario to show there reason a strong group organizing and supporting fighters would benefit everyone.

"That's an example of why the fighters association would be good, because these type of shows would be able to come to one spot and ask them, 'What do you have and what can we get' and they'd have access to more people. I was able to get onto that show because I would work for free to be on it."Ultimately, though, Fitch's focus can't be on the lawsuit in progress right now. He has to be ready to make weight in a few days and fight Okami after a lengthy layoff.

"Right now I'm about 192 pounds. I generally like to keep my weight at 187-192 for my training camp. Anything above 192 I start getting a little bit slow and sluggish, and the cardio is not as good. Anything under 187 I feel injuries are more prone. Back when I was playing around with the vegan thing more, when I fought B.J. Penn, my weight was down to 183 and I was getting injured a lot. I made a decision to start eating meat again on the weekends. I find that keeping it above 190, I feel that I've got a layer of fat {*chuckling*} that cushions me and keeps me healthy."

Indeed, as many a fighter will attest to, a healthy and happy Fitch is a dangerous opponent at any stage of his accomplished MMA career. Complete audio of our interview is below and complete WSOF 24 coverage can be found right here on fight night.

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