In what has to be one of the most shocking moves in the past few months the UFC released Jon Fitch on Wednesday. Reports say that his release is due to his refusal to sign an agreement that states that his likeliness would remain exclusive to the UFC and THQ for the upcoming UFC 2009 Undisputed game. FItch had this to say about the hulabaloo:

"I had two fights left on my contract, but they always put a clause in the contract that if you lose a fight, they're able to release you at any time after a loss, that's pretty standard with any organization, but it's pretty incredible that they'd go to those lengths for something like this, over a video game. The video game agreement that they have that they wanted us to sign was basically we don't get anything for it. We get free publicity and promotion from the game, which is great, no problem. The problem is it's a lifetime exclusive contract. That means we would never ever be able to work with any video game companies other than the one the UFC provides. They basically kicked the door open, guns blazing, pointed it in our face and said, 'Sign this or you're going to pay'".

UFC president Dana White told Yahoo Sports on Wednesday that the UFC will no longer be doing business with American Kickboxing Academy in San Jose, which is where Fitch trains at. Due to this the UFC also cut AKA fighters Cain Velasquez, and Christian Wellisch. Josh Koscheck is rumored to be cut after his December 10th fight against Yoshiyuki Yoshida. When speaking to Yahoo Sports, White had this family friendly piece to say about the situation:

"We're looking for guys who want to work with us and not against us, and frankly I'm just so [expletive] sick of this [expletive] it's not even funny, Affliction is still out there trying to build its company. Let him go work with them. Let him see what he thinks of those [expletives]. [Expletive] him. These guys aren't partners with us. [Expletive] them. All of them, every last [expletive] one of them."

For anyone that doesn't watch The Ultimate Fighter, yes, the president of a multi-million dollar company talks like that.

Jon Fitch is 8-1 in the UFC. That one blemish on his record is from welterweight champion Georges St. Pierre, and that was the first time that St. Pierre had gone a full 5 rounds in a title defense. There's a line in here that troubles me, "...but they always put a clause in the contract that if you lose a fight, they're able to release you at any time after a loss,". Here's what bugs me, they release Jon Fitch after a possible fight of the year fight, yet Brandon Vera, a man who's 1-3 in his last 4 fights, still has a job...

Logic!

[UPDATE]: mmamania.com is reporting that all is well and Jon Fitch(along with the other fighters reportedly on the chopping block listed above) is not only back in the UFC fold, but will fight at UFC 94 reportedly against Akihiro Gono. Fitch told mmarated.com this:

"Communication kind of broke down with Dana (White) so we talked with Lorenzo. (I) just got off the phone with him and we came to an agreement. We're going to move ahead and I'll be back in the UFC. We're going to sign off on the video game and I'm back. It was never even about the agreement or the contract. It was the approach that we felt Dana was being a little bit hot-headed and was threatening us right off the bat. It didn't seem like a professional way of doing things."

Dana White almost single handedly put a gaping hole in the welterweight division. Only time will tell if he'll take his [expletive] foot out of his [expletive] mouth, maybe even learn a thing or two about this [expletive].