Jon Fitch MMAMemories.com Exclusive Biofile Published by Scoop Malinowski Last Updated on March 8th, 2008

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STATUS: UFC Welterweight fighter.

HT: 6-0 WT: 192

DOB: February 24, 1978 IN: Fort Wayne, Indiana

CHILDHOOD HEROES: “Dick Butkus, Ray Nitschke. I grew up thinking I was going to play pro football.”

HOBBIES/INTERESTS: “Watching football, video games, mostly just training. Jiu-jitsu, boxing, kickboxing and Muay Thai are hobbies. I have a lot of fun training these things.”

FAVORITE MOVIES: “There’s so many, Fight Club, Snatch, Frailty, 28 Days Later.”

FAVORITE TV SHOWS: “Cartoons, Daily Show, Adult Swim, Robot Chicken, Animal Planet, Discovery Channel.”

LAST BOOK READ: “Now I’m reading Steven Colbert’s book. The last one was a collection of Socrates dialogues to Plato.”

MUSICAL TASTES: “Anything, new artists. I don’t listen to the radio. I just discovered the new hi-def music channel on my cable.”

FIRST JOB: “I used to clean my dad’s office, he’s an engineer. My first real job was as a commercial insulator. In Indiana, where it gets to be 100 degrees with humidity in the summer. I had to wear long pants and long sleeve shirts, crawling around in crawlspaces and attics. It should be a job on that TV show Dirty Jobs.”

FIRST CAR: “Buick Skylark (red), a hand-me-down from my mom.”

CURRENT CAR: “I just totalled my Nissan Titan. So I’m in the process of getting a new car.”

FAVORITE MEAL: “Steak and potatoes.”

FAVORITE BREAKFAST CEREAL: “Fruity Pebbles has to be up there.”

FAVORITE ICE CREAM FLAVOR: “Chocolate. But Ben & Jerry’s has a lot of good combinations.”

FAVORITE WEBSITES: “Fitchfighter.com. I’m on Myspace quite a bit actually.”

FIRST FIGHT MEMORY: “I remember my very first fight. The ref saying go and thinking to myself, What have I got myself into? I never actually sparred before my first fight – I just wrestled and hit the heavy bag – and then getting in there and realizing the other guy is gonna hit you back. And every other fight I was in I wasn’t sober. (How did you do?) I lost by rear naked choke to Mike Pyle (2002).”

PRE-FIGHT FEELING: “I’m just relaxed and focused on what I’ve done to get to this point. Focus on my gameplan. Evaluating and re-evaluating mental imagery of everything that could go right and everything that could go wrong. If my main gameplan doesn’t work, I always have something else to fall back on.”

GREATEST SPORTS MOMENT: “Just getting to the UFC. It was a long, hard road to get there. It just opened the door for everything else. I fought as a subsitute replacement – that’s why I had to fight at 185 (defeated Brock Larson).”

MOST PAINFUL MOMENT: “I don’t know, I’m pretty happy with my career. Even the losses. I needed them to get to where I am today. Even getting stood up by UFC for Ultimate Fighter 1 – that bothered me for a while. But all that went away. Everything happened for a reason – to get to where I am now.”

WORST INJURY: “I tore, blew out both knees.”

WHICH FIGHT WAS YOUR BEST PERFORMANCE: “I don’t think I’ve had my very best fight yet. Each fight I’m slowly progressing forward. I’m kind of hard on myself. I’m never happy with any of my fights.”

TOUGHEST MAN FACED: “They’re all tough. I think as far as toughest, in terms of taking the most punishment and still being in your face – Kuniyoshi Hironaka. I think I could have hit him with a sledgehammer in the face and he’d still be smiling at me. He’s actually coming over to train with me.”

FAVORITE FIGHTERS TO WATCH: “I like Frankie Edgar quite a bit. I like his transition game. Brandon Vera. I like guys who fight in a four-dimensional manner. Hermes is always a lot of fun to watch.”

BEST FIGHT YOU’VE SEEN: “Edgar vs. Griffin was pretty great. Clay Guida in his last fight, against The Matador. I forget his name.”

FUNNY MEMORY: “The first thing that comes to mind, I was in a wrestling tournament. A guy from Slippery Rock was wearing a white singlet. He was defending a shot – straining hard – the next thing you know, there’s a brown spot seeping through his singlet [laughs].”

LAST VACATION: “Vietnam in January. Pretty cool trip.”

LAST HALLOWEEN COSTUME: “White trash, with a mullet, white t-shirt.”

PEOPLE QUALITIES MOST ADMIRED: “Just honesty. Even if they’re an asshole, I’d rather they be an honest asshole. Honest. Or just people who are real.”

COLLEGE: Purdue.