Bellator welterweight contender Jon Fitch says that even though he’s an “old fart” he can still beat anyone in the top-15 UFC welterweight rankings.

Fitch fought for the UFC between 2005 and 2013 before being unceremoniously dumped by the promotion following a loss to Demian Maia at UFC 156. Fitch ended up signing with WSOF and was the welterweight champion in WSOF and later PFL before the promotion released him and he signed with Bellator.

Since signing with Bellator in 2018, Fitch is 1-0-1 with a decision win over Paul Daley and a controversial majority draw against Rory MacDonald. Many felt that Fitch should have gotten his hand raised in the MacDonald fight, and since then Fitch has spoken about the disappointment of not getting the decision and how he’s now considering retirement.

On Wednesday, Fitch reacted to the UFC’s updated welterweight rankings. According to Fitch, he can beat anyone in the UFC’s top-15 at 170lbs.

Here’s what Fitch wrote on his Twitter.

https://twitter.com/jonfitchdotnet/status/1204650496704729088

“I’m an old fart and can still beat all these guys.”

Fitch was cut by the UFC because of his fighting style which is very grappling heavy. Like Liz Carmouche, Fitch was able to grind on and beat young fighters with weaker wrestling skills such as Erick Silva, who Fitch beat back at UFC 153. At the time the UFC wasn’t happy that Fitch took out one of its top prospects and once he lost to Maia the UFC had the ammunition needed to go ahead and cut Fitch, despite being a top-five fighter at 170lbs.

Fitch is clearly still an effective fighter as we saw in the Daley and MacDonald fights, but perhaps he’s biting off a bit more than he can chew with his comments about the UFC’s top-15 welterweights.

Do you agree with Jon Fitch that he could hold his own with the UFC welterweight top-15?

This article first appeared on BJPENN.com on 12/10/2019.