One of the stranger stories of the past 24 hours involved a spat between Jon Fitch and Dana White. Here’s how it went down–the UFC and videogame company THQ are developing a videogame. Meanwhile, EASports–who are essentially the UFC-esque dominant company in sports videogames–are independently developing their own game. Until now, there’s been a dearth of MMA video games but with the growth of the sport and the need for videogame companies to come up with new games that’s about to change.

ROUND 1: Fitch won’t sign, Dana blows up:

The UFC wanted their fighters to sign over the rights to use their likenesses in the forthcoming game–for life. It was the “for life” part that Fitch and several other fighters had an issue with. Its also important to note that the fighters who took issue with Dana’s request were represented by DeWayne Zinkin and Bob Cook and/or were American Kickboxing Academy fighters. Dana has apparently had a beef with Zinkin and AKA for years and this situation brought it to a head.

The first response was Dana announced that Fitch had been released from his UFC contract. That sounded strange on the surface since Dana usually makes these announcements about struggling fighters or guys who’ve done something to piss him off or otherwise act unprofessionally–recently Kalib Starnes fell into that cateory, as did Season 7 TUF contestant Jesse Taylor. Fitch, on the other hand, has just turned 30 with a career mark of 19-3-1 with his only loss in the past six years to a guy named Georges St. Pierre who is pretty good or something. In that loss, Fitch fought like a crazed weasel and went five rounds with GSP absorbing a wicked beating in the process. Long story short, Fitch is a warrior in the cage and a gentleman outside of it–one of the guys who personifies everything that is good about fighting.

It then came out, first reported by Yahoo’s Kevin Iole, that Fitch’s offense was refusing to sign what he considered an unfavorable marketing agreement. White went postal in his comments about Fitch, punctuated by his usual heavy dose of expletives:

“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 said from Honolulu, where he flew Wednesday from Toronto to hold a news conference to announce the B.J. Penn-Georges St. Pierre fight for UFC 94 on Jan. 31 in Las Vegas.

“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 maintained a cooler head in his comments to Iole:

Fitch said Wednesday the dispute was over his reluctance to sign a lifetime contract to allow his name and likeness to be used in a video game the UFC is planning with THQ. He said the dispute has nothing to do with money and that he never caused a problem during his time in the UFC.

He said he simply didn’t understand the need to sign a lifetime contract, particularly since it would not pay his family in the event of his death.

“Working for free and selling our rights away for lifetime, that’s a little different,” said Fitch, who said he hasn’t spoken with White but plans to call him. “We tried to negotiate five- or 10-year deals with them, but it wasn’t good enough. It was all or nothing. He wanted our lifetime. He wanted our souls forever.”

Dana then played his “you don’t understand how hard Lorenzo and I have worked to build the UFC card” that comes out whenever someone questions Zuffa’s business decisions. In all fairness, both men *have* worked their ass off to build the UFC and the sport of MMA–we make fun of Dana alot but at the same time we have mad respect for the guy. His work ethic alone is ungodly, he clearly cares about what he’s doing and there’s not a business in the world that wouldn’t want someone with his loyalty. At the end of the day, however, the sport of MMA and the UFC is about the two guys fighting in the cage. No one–well, no one except me because I’m a business management geek–would tune in to watch Dana and Lorenzo doing business. The UFC has to exist by the same “prime directive” that we expect of boxing promoters and every other MMA promotion–you gotta take care of the fighters. Dana went on about the sacrifices he makes in his personal life–no doubt true, but, again, nothing like the sacrifices that a professional fighter makes to pursue his craft. He also called out AKA again:

White complained that he has to make frequent sacrifices in his personal life and is away from his family for long stretches because of his commitment to growing the UFC. He said the AKA fighters don’t understand the things UFC management is trying to do and said they’ll learn how tough things are in the poor economy.

“There are a lot of guys who help us and work with us and are great partners with us, and they’re the ones we’re going to remember and take care of,” White said. “Do these guys understand what is going on in this world? I’ll tell you, this economy is [expletive] up. It’s totally [expletive] up. It’s bad, real, real bad. The [television] networks are in trouble and don’t have money. The sponsors are in trouble, and they have no money. If they don’t have money, they go out of business.

“It’s a whole other world out there, believe me, and let these guys go out there and see what they find.”

Dana continued by slinging a few more f-bombs toward Fitch, AKA and a few of the other fighters who questioned the terms of the agreement:

White said he has sacrificed more than anyone to build the UFC into the powerhouse it has become and that he’s tired of athletes who don’t want to “get with the program.”

Velasquez, one of the sport’s rising stars, clearly is on the outs with White. White said Zinkin wanted standard language that is part of every UFC fighter’s contract removed from Velasquez’s deal.

“Can you believe that?” White said. “Chuck Liddell has that language in his contract. Randy Couture has it. Anderson Silva has it. And Cain [expletive] Velasquez, with two [expletive] fights, wants us to change it for him? That’s [expletive] nuts. He can get the [expletive] out.

“I’m not a douche bag and I do a lot for these guys, a lot more than any of you will ever know. We’re in a horrible time in the economy now, and every guy with two nickels to rub together is making a run at us. We’ve worked too hard, given too much, to let certain guys come in and [expletive] with that.”

Velsquez, whose middle name really *isn’t* “f-bomb”, only has a few pro fights (2 in the UFC, 4 altogether) but he’s a monster. Only one of his fights have gone past the 2:10 mark of the first round–obviously an example of the proverbial “sophomore slump” Velesquez “struggled” with Jeremiah Constant on a BoDog Fight card taking all of *four* minutes to get the TKO win. Basically, he’s a younger version of Brock Lesnar with a better developed striking game and some of the best training in the sport at AKA. He’s going to be one of the heavyweights of the future and a guy that Zuffa clearly didn’t want to lose…

Fitch concluded Iole’s article with a reaffirmation of his commitment to the UFC:

Fitch said he’s not trying to mess with anything and that he simply wants to fight. He said he always has been respectful in all his dealings with the UFC and said he can’t understand the position he finds himself in without ever having spoken to White.

He plans to call White to discuss the situation but wasn’t sure what move to make.

“I’m more than willing to work with them, but I don’t see why we have to give up our whole lives for this,” Fitch said. “Why not a time limit? If we did a 10-year deal with them, is that that unreasonable? I don’t understand how this happened, honestly. It’s tough.”

In Dana vs. Fitch/AKA: Round Two, the controversy explodes through the MMA media….

UFC drops Fitch, AKA fighters @ Yahoo Sports