At UFC 129 last Saturday, underrated welterweight Jake Ellenberger stepped in on two weeks notice to fight Sean Pierson.
Ellenberger showed that taking a fight on short notice was no problem for him, as he knocked Pierson out in the first round. He showed how his striking has improved since his last fight as he caught Pierson with a beautiful counter left hand that ended the Canadian’s night early.
However, the punch that gained Ellenberger the victory would bring about some down time as he broke the fourth metacarpal in his left hand that required him to get surgery this week.
Ellenberger stated that the surgery went well and he should be back to training in six to eight weeks.
With the victory, Ellenberger has now won four consecutive fights over top fighters such as John Howard and Mike Pyle. Ellenberger finds himself close to breaking into the top 10 in the welterweight division and has said that he wants to fight the biggest and the best the division has to offer.
Although Ellenberger cannot immediately get back to work, according to MMAWeekly, he already knows who he wants to be his next opponent, recently defeated No. 1 contender Jake Shields.
“I would love it. I would still love that fight,” Ellenberger said about Shields. “It’s definitely up to the UFC, you know Joe (Silva) and Dana (White), what they want to do, but yeah if I could pick who I fight it would definitely be (Jake Shields).”
Shields, like Ellenberger, also fought at UFC 129, but received a different result than Ellenberger.
Shields was dominated by welterweight champion Georges St-Pierre in route to a decision loss where Shields was not able to utilize his strength, his jiu-jitsu.
GSP stuffed all of Shields take down attempts and forced the American to beat him in a stand-up brawl, which Shields could not.
Ellenberger has known to be critical of Jake Shields in the past, however, he knows that the former Strikeforce Middleweight champion is still very dangerous, which is why he wants to fight him.
“I definitely still think Shields is on that level; he’s a top guy.” he said.
“Fighting a guy like GSP, that’s a tough feat in it’s own, but Shields is still a top ten guy in the division. I’m ready, I really feel I’m ready.” Ellenberger said.
As “The Juggernaut” recovers from his recent injury, he will await the call on who his next opponent will be. Whether it is Shields, or another top welterweight, Ellenberger will be ready.
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