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In what has to have been one of the craziest 24 hours in Jon Fitch’s life, he is now back IN the UFC. MMAFight.ca has learned that his situation has been resolved, thanks to a pow wow with Fitch, his management team, Dana White and Lorenzo Fertitta today. Said Bob Cook, Fitch’s manager, “Jon and I spoke with Lorenzo Fertitta and we managed to put everything back together.”

As well, everyone at American Kickboxing Academy, AKA, would be signing on with the lifetime UFC video game contract, the same contract that apparently broke the camel’s back yesterday. This includes Jon Fitch, Josh Koscheck and Cain Velasquez. Mike Swick had caught wind of the dispute earlier, and personally called Dana White to tell him he wanted in with the UFC, regardless of what his management said.

Fitch mentioned that the lines of communication with Dana White “broke down” this morning and that Lorenzo Fertitta stepped in and carried on with negotiations. White says what’s on his mind, sometimes putting his foot in his mouth, and gave an expletive-laden interview yesterday about AKA and all their members. Luckily, cooler heads prevailed.

Bob Cook, one guy White specifically singled out as the problem, has a call in to White to hopefully mend fences. I wish him luck on that front.

On the heels of Jon Fitch’s shocking release from the UFC, USA Today has an excellent write-up that sheds light on the situation. Here are some quotes from Dana White on the situation:

That’s not accurate at all. I never talked to Jon Fitch once. I never talked to Jon Fitch. I talked to the AKA guys, the guys who manage him.
The only fighter that called me from AKA was Mike Swick. Mike Swick called me from AKA, that was it. And Mike Swick said, “Listen, I don’t know what’s going on. I don’t care what’s going on. I’m with you, I’m in business with you guys. You guys are my partners.” And I said, “I appreciate that, Mike. We look at you the same way.”
This isn’t an attack on any fighter. I didn’t talk to (Fitch) and say, “Where are you going to go? What are you going to do?” Affliction is trying to build a company right now. Those guys are dying for fighters – dying for fighters. I’m sure Fitch isn’t going to have any problems finding work over there, or any of the other guys.
But if Fitch called me today, if Fitch called me right now and said, “Dana, listen, I don’t know what happened with my managers … but I want to work this out with you,” I’d work it out with Fitch in two seconds.
It has nothing to do with Jon Fitch or any other specific fighters. It has to do with the management team, the guys who own AKA. I don’t want to be in business with them anymore. End of story.

As for Jon Fitch’s American Kickboxing Academy team mate, Josh Koscheck:

Listen, at the end of the day, I decided not to do business with AKA. Koscheck is part of the AKA team. But the difference is, I gave my word to Josh Koscheck.
Man to man, I told him, “You fight this fight with Thiago Alves (on two weeks notice at UFC 89 on October 25), come in and do this – if you don’t get hurt and you have no injuries from this fight – win or lose, I’ll put you in the next fight. (Fight for the Troops main event vs Yoshiyuki Yoshida on December 10)”
I gave that kid my word. I’ll never go back on that.

There’s word that the UFC and AKA fight camp have re-opened the lines of communication. Let’s hope they work something out.