Filed under: UFC
It was a fight he lobbied for incessantly.
Jake Ellenberger wanted a chance to face Jake Shields, a chance to face one of the welterweight division’s best. The intensity of his interest in the fight though, came as something of a surprise when he began to stalk Shields on Twitter. Ellenberger called him a “joke,” told him his days were numbered, said he was about as “exciting as watching a bowl of mash potatoes get cold.” And when the fight was finally made, and Shields said he didn’t really know who Ellenberger was, he made one last statement.
“Jake Shields, you don’t know who I am, and you’re not gonna [sic] know who I am after the fight either,” Ellenberger tweeted on July 12. “You’re cornermen will tell you.”
With that, he called his shot, basically promising a knockout.
It was a bold call. An entire decade — and 29 fights — had passed since a referee had pulled an opponent off Shields. And he wasn’t fighting cupcakes during that time. He’d stood across the cage from names like Georges St-Pierre, Dan Henderson, Carlos Condit, Yushin Okami and Paul Daley, and none of them had been able to put him down for good.
On top of that, Ellenberger came in as the underdog, with Shields nearly a 2-to-1 favorite.
No one knocks out Shields, and Jake Ellenberger was going to do it?
If it sounded like empty hype, you couldn’t blame Ellenberger for firing out some verbal warheads. After six years in the fight game and an excellent record (he’s now 25-5), he might have been wondering what exactly he needed to do to gain any traction. Nothing he’d done in the UFC up to that point had made him a household name, and few were clamoring to see him fight the division’s best.
Finally, he got his chance, and made it a quick night of work. Living up to his promise, he knocked out Shields in just 53 seconds. After shrugging off a pair of Shields’ takedown tries, Ellenberger landed a crushing knee to the head that knocked his opponent down, then finished him on the ground with a series of hard left hands that forced the referee to step in.
With that, the 26-year-old Ellenberger announced himself as a true contender.
It was hard not to feel some sympathy for Shields. Just two weeks ago, he lost his father, 67-year-old Jack. Jake Shields said he never seriously contemplated withdrawing from the fight, but you have to wonder if his concentration level was where it needed to be.
That’s not Ellenberger’s concern, of course. The cage is no place for feelings. Histories must be left behind and future plans must be set aside, if only momentarily. The only thing that can matter is the next second.
While Shields rode the emotional roller coaster to New Orleans, Ellenberger had to be feeling at least a hint of pressure. While he came in on a four-fight win streak, this fight was his first UFC main event, and his first chance to really impress the people who matter. Wins against Mike Pyle and John Howard are fine. They look good on a record, and they move you up the rankings incrementally. But a win over Shields?
This is a guy who has beaten Henderson and Jason “Mayhem” Miller and Carlos Condit, and the list goes on. He’s won titles in two different weight classes, and his awkward striking style aside, he simply wins and wins. Beating Shields means something. It’s more than a victory; it’s a message. Jake Ellenberger has arrived.
You know how hard it is to call out a fighter ranked above you, get that fight and crush him? That’s the trifecta Ellenberger just pulled off. There were plenty of fighters he could have wanted, but he had his eye on one target all along, for very specific reasons. As Ellenberger tells it, he was supposed to fight Shields once a couple years ago, but Shields ended up withdrawing from the fight. As Ellenberger tells it, he was too dangerous and not well known enough for Shields to take the risk.
This is what you do when you get your long-awaited opportunity. Ellenberger fought like a man with everything to gain in the future while motivated by everything he’s missed out on in the past.