Whether you like his style or not, Jon Fitch is a winner. He’s a very diligent fighter, constantly imposes his will, keeps improving and gets the job done. Other than his loss to Georges St Pierre, who defeats everyone in his path, or if he doesn’t, gets them back in rematch, Jon Fitch has been golden in the UFC. If you ask anyone he’s stepped in the cage with him to list their toughest opponent, a common answer is going to be Jon Fitch.

The UFC recently announced their incentive program for fighters who use Twitter, and now it looks like fighters are ready to start matchmaking on it. BJ Penn, who is well known to do things outside of the box, sent out a Tweet challenging Shields and saying he has been calling him out for years. I don’t recall Shields ever calling out Penn, but only Penn would know better than anyone. Shields did say he’s the best BJJ fighter Georges St Pierre has fought leading up to their title fight, so many that is something Penn took offense to. Or it may just be a creative marketing ploy by Penn too book a fight.

It’s kind of funny that the Tweet was sent out because if you look at history of Shields Twitter page, on May 13 he said:

“It is good to be back from Vegas. I had a good time at the conference ended up partying with BJ and GSP.”

3 days later he’s called out by BJ. Nonetheless, Shields is game and has suggested to make it a 5 round fight, and Penn has agreed, with a bit of sarcasm to boot: “If that makes you feel more confident…sure”.
It could be done as the UFC is set to start making 5 round main event fights that are non-fight bouts.

This matchup between Shields and Penn might take on a similar look as Pierre and Shields. Penn is going to be tough to take down and will be able to oustrike Shields. The only difference will likely be Shields being more relentless with his takedowns, and Penn likely being a bit more aggressive with striking. It was a bit surprising that Shields didn’t try more than a couple takedowns in his fight with GSP at UFC 129 in Toronto. The success he has found his whole career has chiefly been determined by his ability to get fighters to the floor and out-Jiu-Jitsu them from there utilizing his brand of ground work he named “American Jiu-Jitsu.” But Shields was not able to use any AJJ against GSP, as the Canadian did a good job in evidently getting Shields out of his gameplan, as he has done with most of his foes he has fought in MMA. Shields is a very intelligent fighter and will definitely be more adamant about getting things to the mat with Penn.

The ground game between Penn and Shields would be interesting to watch should the fight go there. Both are elite grapplers in the MMA and pure grappling world. There would probably be a stalemate on the ground as both fighters are so skilled at the game, that if one gets the edge for a moment other fighter will be able to recover. However the standup game will be much more one-sided for Penn. And because BJ is so difficult to put on his back, much of the fight will probably take place there, and give Penn the edge in this one, should UFC president Dana White give the approval of this social media matchmaking.