Dana White Waiting on Injuries to Heal To Make Fights for Shields, Fitch, and Penn
Posted on June 10, 2011 by Damon Martin
mmaweekly
BJ Penn at UFC 94
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Dana White says no decisions have been made yet as far as what’s next for Jake Shields, B.J. Penn or Jon Fitch, mostly because a couple of them are still dealing with lingering injuries.
The welterweight division in the UFC is definitely one of the deepest and best in the sport, and a few of the fighters sitting at the top are waiting on the call to back in action.
A few weeks back, Jake Shields and former UFC welterweight champion B.J. Penn exchanged a few messages via Twitter offered to accept a fight against each other. Penn suffered an injury that him out of action for a few months, but he appears ready to return.
Meanwhile former title contender Jon Fitch, currently sidelined after having shoulder surgery, stated he only wanted to face a champion or former champion next, and he still has a fight to settle with B.J. Penn after their last fight ended in a draw.
UFC President Dana White will be happy to put all of them into fights, maybe even pair two of them off together in a bout, but until they’re healthy he can’t do much of anything.
“No, we don’t have anything yet. B.J.’s been calling (Shields) out, B.J.’s chomping at the bit to fight right now, he wants to fight,” White told MMAWeekly.com on Thursday.
“Right now that’s what we’re waiting on. As far as a lot of these fights go, guys that are injured, guys that are not, guys that are coming back, once all these guys heal up we’re going to have a crazy roster.”
Fitch is expected to be out until early fall, but Penn and Shields both appear ready to fight so the UFC could potentially match them up for a card in September or October, but again White specifically said nothing has been determined.
Shields is the only fighter out of the trio of welterweights not currently sidelined by an injury, so he’ll likely be the first one to land a fight, but it’s just a matter of who and when.
White and UFC matchmaker Joe Silva will likely start looking at those fights in the fall of 2011.
