Jon Fitch says he gave Yushin Okami's strength too much respect at WSOF 24

Jon Fitch

Jon Fitch was ready for a beast when he fought Yushin Okami in the main event of WSOF 24. He was so ready for Okami’s strength, in fact, that he says he gave too much respect to the Japanese fighter.

Fitch (27-7-1) outworked Okami (30-10) to take a unanimous decision victory at the event, which Foxwoods Resort Casino in Mashantucket, Conn. The main card aired on NBCSN following prelims on MMAjunkie. The official scorecards read 30-27, 30-27 and 29-28.

Okami was known as a ferociously strong fighter during his long middleweight career, Fitch was ready for that strength to be present – and possibly even amplified – with Okami’s move to welterweight for the fight. That thinking, Fitch says, caused him to give a bit too much respect to his opponent.

“He’s definitely strong, but I’m a beast myself,” Fitch told MMAjunkie following his win. “In the first round, I gave him too much credit for how strong he was going to be. I kept waiting for him to hulk me over with the body lock, because he was locking his hands a few times. I think that I eventually overpowered him and made him constantly work, drain the oxygen from his muscles and slowed him down a little bit. He’s kind of awkward and big, long and difficult to deal with.”

One factor that led Fitch to give Okami so much respect was the experience of an old teammate.

Mike Swick fought Okami at UFC 69 in Apr. 2007, losing a unanimous decision. Swick was blown away by the strength of Okami in the fight.

“I wish I hadn’t heard anything that Mike said about him,” Fitch said. “I just had this conversation with my manager, he said, ‘Do you know what Swick said when he came back to the corner after the first round of that fight? He said, ‘He’s the strongest guy I’ve ever felt.’’ I had heard that story before, so I was coming into this fight thinking he was going to be a gorilla. He was strong, but I think I gave him too much credit.”

Fitch was able to utilize a takedown-heavy attack to grind out the victory, outmuscling the bigger Okami for much of the fight.

It wasn’t the way that he expected the fight to go, but Fitch sees Okami’s speed at 170 as something that could make for a successful future at the weight should he choose to stay.

“I didn’t have too many expectations of where the fight was going to go,” Fitch said. “I figured he would be slower than me and I thought maybe I’d be able to take advantage in the standup a little more. But he turned out to be quite a bit faster. He got faster at welterweight. He wasn’t laboring through a lot of punches as he kind of appears to at 185. I think he’s got a career at 170 if he wants to keep fighting at that weight.”

For more on WSOF 24, check out the MMA Events section of the site.