Jon Fitch has never been one to agree with the status quo for the sake of getting by.

The Indiana native has spent more than a decade standing up to and pushing back against the establishment in what he believes has been a rigged game from the jump. Some of Fitch's battles have been highly publicized where others have been calculated moves over the course of time, but regardless of the situation, he's never stopped fighting for what he believes in.

Fitch will continue his efforts until fighters past, present and future receive the type of treatment they rightfully deserve.

"Ever since I was a kid I wanted to be a professional athlete," Fitch said. "Originally I wanted to be a football player but I wasn't big enough, strong enough or fast enough. I still wanted to be a professional athlete, but the way that true professional athletes carry themselves and the way the sports operate doesn't look anything like mixed martial arts.

"I think a lot of people have had the wool pulled over their eyes and don't see what is structurally wrong with the sport. This is not a sport. Every major sport adheres to the same fundamental formulas and mixed martial arts does not. We follow a formula that is 150 years old and the government found to be illegal 150 years ago.

"No other sport operates like this. Could you imagine any other sport having an owner who talks to their athletes the way some promoters do. It would just never happen."

While Fitch had a successful yet embattled run under the UFC banner, the Purdue University alum has found new footing under the World Series of Fighting banner. The hard-nosed grappler quickly rose to earn the promotion's welterweight title, and has settled in nicely with the upstart organization.

That said, Fitch hasn't stopped fighting to make sure the broken elements of the sport get repaired. He's a huge advocate of the Ali Act being implemented in MMA, and believes is the flawed system is not repaired, the sport he loves could come to an end. For those reasons Fitch believes the fight he's been engaged in has never been more important than it is now.

"I think World Series is doing a great job," Fitch said. "I think Bellator is going a great job, but even though these promotions are out there trying to do their best they are heavily restricted because it's an anti-competitive market. Businesses are going to struggle and fail in an anti-competitive market.

"We are a capitalist country where markets are supposed to be unhindered and competitive. MMA does not work that way. There should not be favoritism shown toward any company. The promoter is not allowed to hold exclusive contracts and hold the title. It's been shown over and over again that is not something that works because it's anti-competitive. That's the purpose behind the Muhammad Ali Act.

"It's always going to be pro wrestling minus the predetermined outcomes unless we change how the sport works."



The Ali Act has been a hot-button issue circling around the MMA community for the past year. Fighters past and present have been advocating for it, while Zuffa openly lobbied against the bill leading up to their historic sale of the UFC to WME/ING.

Deep pockets and corporate muscle will undoubtedly make the road ahead difficult for Fitch and his fellow advocates, but the WSOF welterweight champion hasn't lost his optimism for the future.

"Absolutely," Fitch answered when asked if he has hope of the Ali Act's future in MMA. "These people in Congress are mostly lawyers. The last appearance Randy [Couture] and the other guys attended they handed over promotional agreements from the UFC and these lawyers and representatives were floored. They could not believe this was happening.

"I don't have any negative feelings toward any organization. The people who created the structure of the sport are gone, but we've all inherited a broken system. Therefore it's up to us to fix it. If that doesn't happen the sport will continue to suffer and it will die. It cannot operate under these conditions."

And where the larger battles will play out in courtrooms in the nation's capital, the more immediate fight for Fitch will come at WSOF 34 in New York City on Dec. 31.

The promotion's 170-pound champion will but his title on the line against longtime acquaintance and former Strikeforce champion Jake Shields in a matchup that pits two of the longest standing elite welterweights in the sport.

The two men have known one another for years and logged plenty of training sessions together inside the gym. Fitch believes it is a fight many years in the making and will be something special for the hardcore MMA fans who always wanted to know who was better between the two.

"I've trained with Jake a lot over the years," Fitch said. "We've circled the same orbits for a long time and it's nice to finally get in there with him. It's going to be a good fight for people to watch and pretty exciting that it's taking place in New York and Madison Square Garden. A lot of things lined up pretty well for a big fight."

The bout will come as one of four title fights featured on the promotion's year end card and is a big part of why WSOF 34 is being billed as the biggest event in the organization's history. The weight of the moment isn't lost on Fitch, but his scrap with Shields is just one of many tussles currently on his agenda.

As long as Fitch is challenging himself and railing back against a system he sees as flawed, the 38-year-old can find happiness he's doing what he was born to do and that's fight.

"I didn't have many things I ever aimed to check off in my career," Fitch said. "I wanted to be a world champion and prove that I was the best at my weight. That's very hard to do in the current system we have. The most important aspect is I'm a fighter and I love to fight...whatever it is. The outcome doesn't really matter because as long as I'm fighting I'm winning. Whether it's in the cage, the courts or in front of Congress; if I'm fighting I'm winning."