Jake Ellenberger scored the biggest win of his career Saturday by knocking out Jake Shields in 53 seconds at UFC Fight Night 25 in New Orleans.
Grabbing the Muay Thai clinch, Ellenberger landed a knee to the body and then a knee to the head to collapse Shields forward. Quick to capitalize on his stunned opponent, Ellenberger jumped in with fast left hands for the referee stoppage.
Shields expressed that he could have continued in the post-fight interview with announcer Joe Rogan, but he sure didn’t appear to be from the spectator’s standpoint, as he tried to take down the referee after the stoppage. The loss was an especially difficult one for the former Strikeforce middleweight champion considering he lost his father less than three weeks ago. Shields came into the fight having only been finished once in his career, a first-round TKO suffered against Marty Armendarez back in March 2000 — Shields’ third professional MMA fight.
Ellenberger, who hasn’t tasted defeat since his UFC debut in September 2009 against current No. 1 contender Carlos Condit, made the most his first high-profile fight and now finds himself in welterweight title contention with this win.
“Jake Shields is a champion,” Ellenberger said. “I can’t explain how I feel right now, it feels great.”
With his fifth straight UFC win, Ellenberger improves his overall record to 25-5. Meanwhile, Shields’ record slides to 26-6-1.