Jon Fitch released by UFC over likeness rights

UPDATE 11/20 -- The American Kickboxing Academy and the UFC have worked out their differences, and Jon Fitch as well as Christian Wellisch are back with the UFC. Josh Koscheck and Cain Velasquez will also stay with the company.

Jon Fitch, the most recent former number one contender to the UFC welterweight title, has been released by the UFC over name and likeness rights, Fitch's manager confirmed to MMAFighting.com late Wednesday.

Fitch refused to sign a contract to give the UFC lifetime rights to his likeness for video games and possibly other merchandising opportunities.

The UFC videogame "UFC 2009 Undisputed" is scheduled to be released by THQ in Spring 2009.

Fitch, represented by Zinkin Entertainment, trains out of the San Jose-based American Kickboxing Academy, which is also home to Christian Wellisch, Josh Koscheck, Mike Swick and Cain Velasquez.

Yahoo! Sports first reported of UFC President Dana White's fallout with Zinkin Entertainment and American Kickboxing Academy.

"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," White told Yahoo! Sports. "Affliction is still out there trying to build its company. Let [Fitch] 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."

Fitch's teammate Wellisch has also been released, and was actually the first to go even though he was willing to sign the video game agreement.

"[The UFC cut Wellisch] from the organization first as kind of a scare [tactic] to me and Koscheck and Cain [Velasquez]," Fitch said on an appearance on Hardcore Sports Radio on Sirius satellite radio.

Velasquez and Koscheck could both be gone after each fulfills one more fight, Fitch added.

Fitch (17-3) won fifteen straight fights -- eight in the UFC -- to earn a title shot in August against Georges St. Pierre. Although Fitch lost via unanimous decision, his resilient effort displayed through the five rounds only cemented his status as one of the top three welterweights in the world.

Fitch, who had two fights left in his contract, would have fought next against Akihiro Gono at UFC 94: St-Pierre vs. Penn on January 31, 2009.