NEW ORLEANS – Jake Ellenberger‘s quick and dominant win over Jake Shields on Saturday will forever be linked to a story that transcends the world of fighting and sports.
When Shields’ father and manager, Jack Shields, died suddenly last month, there were quickly questions of whether he would be able to recover emotionally for the main event with Ellenberger at UFC Fight Night 25 – or if he even might pull out of the fight altogether. Shields was that close with his dad.
Ellenberger said leading up to the fight he could not help but understand Shields’ grief, and respected his decision to go through with the fight. After Ellenberger’s 53-second TKO win, he said he didn’t exchange any words with Shields, post-fight, about the loss of his father.
“I don’t feel it’s my place to be (offering condolences after the fight),” Ellenberger told MMA Fighting. “I know he’s going through a really tough time, but I don’t think it’s my place to talk about it. I feel for him – I really do. Like I said when I heard about this, family is the most important thing in the world outside of fighting, outside of anything.”
Shields had not been stopped in a fight since 2000, his third pro fight, and only in April, in a decision loss to Georges St-Pierre for the welterweight title, had his more than six-year-long winning streak snapped. He has now lost two straight for the first time in his career, which included the Strikeforce middleweight title before he vacated it last year to sign with the UFC.
Ellenberger’s win gave him five straight in the welterweight division, and the ease with which he dispatched Shields likely thrust his name right into title contention with another win. St-Pierre defends next against Carlos Condit in October. Nick Diaz fights BJ Penn on the same night with the winner likely to be next in line after Condit. But Ellenberger’s quick win, taking virtually no damage, may mean he’s back to work quickly, hoping to build on his streak and cement himself as next in line for a shot sometime in 2012.
Saturday, though, he said anyone who wants to downgrade his win by saying Shields might not have been ready for the fight in the wake of his father’s death should reconsider.
“It doesn’t matter, to be honest,” Ellenberger said. “He took the fight. He stayed in there, which I respect about him. He showed he’s a professional and a warrior. He had the opportunity to pull out. I’m not taking anything away from him. A fight is a fight.”
Before Jack Shields passed, there was just a hint of bad blood starting to rise between the two Jakes when Shields said he hadn’t really heard of Ellenberger. But after Saturday night, that likely all got swept under the carpet.
But Ellenberger said he knew he had to put his sympathy for Shields aside when the cage door closed.
“That’s the hard part,” Ellenberger said. “I know he’s going through such a tough time. No matter what you do and say, it’s really hard to push that aside and compete. But I do feel for him. Outside of fighting, I feel for him. I respect him. But when you get in there, it’s our job to fight, and that’s what we do.”