Regardless of how he got it done, Court McGee was glad to get back in the fight after 11 months on the shelf.
McGee returned after an 11-month layoff with knee and hand injuries. But after submission wins in his first two UFC fights, including the Season 11 Finale of “The Ultimate Fighter” to take that crown, McGee needed three rounds Saturday to get past Dongi Yang in the co-main event of UFC Fight Night 25.
Thought another stoppage win would’ve been fine with him, McGee said there were positives he can take out of going the distance.
There’s no substitute for mat time,” McGee told MMA Fighting on Saturday after his win. “I’m grateful that I had a hard three-round fight, but it’s nice to have that feeling and feel somebody tap or submit – to finish somebody. … When I get in there and finish somebody – that’s an awesome, awesome feeling. I’m still grateful I went three rounds and I got the decision. I’ll take it for what it is, and I’m grateful for what it is. Do I think I can do better and improve? Yeah, but it is what it is.”
McGee (14-1, 3-0 UFC) won by unanimous decision, getting scores of 30-27, 29-28 and 30-28 from the three cageside judges in New Orleans. But the third round saw McGee get tagged by Yang, and he had to persevere.
“Luckily, I was born with heart,” McGee said. “I feel you’re either born with it or not. Thank goodness tonight I was. I may not be the prettiest fighter, but I’m tough. That played a role in it tonight.”
McGee said the fight with Yang showed him some areas he plans to work on immediately. But as far as the infamous cage rust, McGee said he experienced none.
“I’ll go back and improve and stay focused, just like I am,” McGee said. “I didn’t feel like I had any ring rust or anything. … The only thing I think I could have done was commit to a shot and take him down a little bit earlier, work some ground. But I don’t look at the destination, I look at the journey. This is part of the journey – learning and improving. I don’t think practice makes perfect – progress rather than perfection. I feel like I’m progressing. I’m happy. I’m content with my win, but I can always improve.”
NEW ORLEANS – If Alan Belcher‘s mind wasn’t made up before Saturday, it sounds like it is now.
Belcher returned to work for the first time in 16 months, following a pair of successful eye surgeries for a detached retina, and made quick work of Jason MacDonald at UFC Fight Night 25 in New Orleans, winning by first-round TKO.
But after the fight, Belcher said he needed the win over MacDonald to be sure he was making the right decision to continue fighting rather than considering retirement.
“Even up until tonight, I was kind of uncertain of what I wanted to do,” Belcher said at the post-fight press conference after his win. “I gave my all in this training camp and everything, but I was nervous as hell going into this fight, coming back.”
But Belcher’s nerves apparently dissipated quickly. The win for Belcher (17-6, 8-4 UFC) was his third straight and fifth in six fights – the only blemish in that stretch being a controversial split decision against Yoshihiro Akiyama at UFC 100. And going into the fight with MacDonald, Belcher had four straight post-fight bonus wins, as well.
And now that things went perhaps even better than he could have expected? Well, Belcher doesn’t see any reason he can’t be right back in the hunt for the middleweight title, the way he was before he was on the shelf for more than a year.
“I missed the feeling, and I feel like I can definitely continue down the path I was on – trying to go for a title shot,” Belcher said. “I think that’s what I’m going to do now.”
Belcher had plenty of support from the crowd at the Ernest N. Morial Convention Center. His home is in Biloxi, Miss., also on the Gulf Coast and a little over an hour away.
But despite that boost from the fans, and despite the adrenaline coming immediately after the fight, Belcher said he won’t start thinking about a future title shot, necessarily – even though he predicts one will come if he keeps on track.
“I still want to take it one fight at a time,” Belcher said. “Before I had the injury, I was in such a hurry to try and get a bunch of wins and get to the top and everything. Through this whole experience, it just taught me to be a lot more patient. I’ve got a feeling that the title shot is going to come faster than I want it to now, so I’m not really worried about it now.”
Following a lackluster bout between Jonathan Brookins and Erik Koch at UFC Fight Night 25, Court “The Crusher” McGee and Dongi “The Ox” Yang got off to a slow start of their own.The first round was fairly even. Yang landed some solid leg kicks and McGe…
Following a lackluster bout between Jonathan Brookins and Erik Koch at UFC Fight Night 25, Court “The Crusher” McGee and Dongi “The Ox” Yang got off to a slow start of their own.
The first round was fairly even. Yang landed some solid leg kicks and McGee landed a good right hand that wobbled his opponent, but it was a largely uneventful otherwise. Neither fighter absorbed much punishment as most of the round was spent judging distance and moving in and out of range.
The second round started out with both fighters swinging a bit more wildly before settling down. McGee attempted a takedown, but Yang showed his impressive Judo pedigree and avoided it.
Court “The Crusher” McGee got tagged a couple of times, but circled away and shook it off. Yang was starting to slow down and McGee began working for another takedown, but the fight remained on the feet. Yang started to telegraph his punches and lower his hands.
McGee’s stamina was impressive, and he was barely breathing heavy. Both fighters traded shots, but nothing much is landing. Yang landed a huge shot that rocks McGee and sends him to falling towards the cage. “The Ox” landed a huge flying knee chasing after him.
Yang managed to get the fight to the ground, but missed an opportunity to take the back, neglecting to put his hooks in. McGee got back to his feet, with Yang looking exhausted.
McGee finally got a takedown and momentarily mounted Yang but, after a scramble ensued, they got back to their feet. McGee got another takedown with less than 20 seconds to go. He attempted a guillotine that nearly finished the fight as the round closed.
Overall, this was an extremely close bout that simply came down to “The Crusher’s” superior conditioning. He looked exactly the same four minutes into the third round as he did at the start of the bout. “The Ox”, however, was still breathing heavy, waiting for the judge’s decision.
Court McGee won by decision (30-27, 29-28 and 30-28).
This fight doesn’t mean all that much for the middleweight division, and wasn’t decisive enough to prove that McGee is a force at that weight, but it was a decent performance from The Ultimate Fighter winner, showing that he may be ready for someone along the lines of Dan Miller or Jason MacDonald.
Jake Ellenberger is for real! After a 53 second destruction of Jake Shields, Ellenberger enters the short list of contenders, and may have the best chance of anyone in the division to take out Georges St-Pierre. It may be a matter of time before &lsquo…
Jake Ellenberger is for real!
After a 53 second destruction of Jake Shields, Ellenberger enters the short list of contenders, and may have the best chance of anyone in the division to take out Georges St-Pierre.
It may be a matter of time before ‘The Juggernaut” gets his shot at UFC gold, and it’s time for him to go after another top name at 170, and attempt to add another name to his growing resume.
Here are five fights for Ellenberger to take next:
Tonight at UFC Fight Night 25, live from New Orleans, Jake Shields and Jake Ellenberger met in a battle between two top 10 welterweights.Despite losing his father and manager, Jack Shields, three weeks ago, Shields chose to continue with the fight…
Tonight at UFC Fight Night 25, live from New Orleans, Jake Shields and Jake Ellenberger met in a battle between two top 10 welterweights.
Despite losing his father and manager, Jack Shields, three weeks ago, Shields chose to continue with the fight against Ellenberger.
Ellenberger was able to get the better of Shields and has now put himself in title contention.
Where do both men rank after tonight’s fight? Continue reading to find out!
In the ultra-competitive world of mixed martial arts, there are two types of competitors.There are athletes that are content with playing it safe and winning on points and then there are fighters who are not satisfied until they have ruthlessly destroy…
In the ultra-competitive world of mixed martial arts, there are two types of competitors.
There are athletes that are content with playing it safe and winning on points and then there are fighters who are not satisfied until they have ruthlessly destroyed their opposition in every way imaginable.
UFC welterweight champion Georges St-Pierre is undeniably the best athlete in the sport today. St-Pierre has defended his championship six times since regaining the title in 2007.
With every defense, the champion has been dominant but, excluding B.J Penn’s corner throwing in the towel for a TKO stoppage at UFC 94, St-Pierre has not finished any of his challengers.
St-Pierre is the epitome of a great athlete but he is not the most dangerous man in the welterweight division.
After tonight, that title rests firmly around the waist of Jake Ellenberger. Not the UFC title, not yet at least, but the title of the division’s deadliest finisher.
At UFC Fight Night 25, it took Ellenberger a mere 53 seconds to do something that a 185-pound Dan Henderson couldn’t even do with his trademark “H-Bomb” (the very same “H-Bomb” that took Fedor Emelianenko out) and that was finish Jake Shields.
Surely a case can be made that Shields was not in the right frame of mind heading into the fight. He had just lost his father two weeks prior to the bout and instead of dropping out of the fight like most would, the valiant competitor decided to soldier on.
That, however, doesn’t discredit what Ellenberger did tonight because Shields likely would have been victorious if he competed against any other fighter in the division apart from those ranked in the top five.
Ellenberger is a welterweight destroyer with heavyweight punching power. Since bursting onto the UFC scene in 2009, the Omaha, Neb. native has finished four out of six fights and has done so in vicious fashion.
His lone Octagon defeat was a somewhat controversial split decision loss to current No. 1 contender Carlos Condit at UFC Fight Night 19.
That fight was Ellenberger’s Octagon debut and on numerous occasions he came close to adding Condit to his list of finished victims.
At UFC 137, Condit will challenge St-Pierre for the title and Ellenberger isn’t far away from facing the winner. Condit is certainly a threat to the champion but Ellenberger is St-Pierre’s true nightmare.
St-Pierre should, in all likelihood, be able to put Condit on his back and do what he has done in all of his recent title defenses, grind out a decision. He won’t have the same luxury with Ellenberger and if you find that statement to be absurd you will be proven wrong soon enough.
In addition to his powerful striking arsenal, Ellenberger is also regarded for being one of the most explosive wrestlers in the entire sport.
Of course, St-Pierre has out-wrestled fighters with far superior NCAA credentials than Ellenberger in the past, but that doesn’t guarantee that Ellenberger will suffer the same fate.
Just the opposite is true because Ellenberger is much quicker than any wrestling-based fighter that St-Pierre has ever competed against.
Ellenberger is that frightening matchup for St-Pierre that was previously thought to be non-existent. In the video packages for St-Pierre’s last few fights, the UFC has hyped his challengers as legitimate threats even though it was clear that they were outmatched even before the fights began.
This is a different circumstance. This isn’t fight-hype, this is real. Ellenberger is a fighter that you can actually believe would hurt St-Pierre and put the untouchable champion in danger. If it took Ellenberger just 53 seconds to put Shields away, imagine what he would be able to do to St-Pierre in a 25 minute title fight.
A former United States Marine, Ellenberger comes to fight whereas St-Pierre just simply comes to win. There’s nothing wrong with St-Pierre’s approach, but in a kill or be killed environment, Ellenberger would survive where St-Pierre would falter.
St-Pierre excels at dictating the pace of his fights, but when he is unsuccessful at doing just that, he crumbles. It has been a very long time since we’ve seen St-Pierre hurt or even frustrated for that matter and it’s very possible we will see him in both situations against Condit, but with Ellenberger it would be a guarantee.
No disrespect to Condit, but Ellenberger is the man to put an end to St-Pierre’s dominant reign as welterweight champion. When St-Pierre tosses and turns in his sleep, he’s thinking about Ellenberger’s knockout power.
For his sake, hopefully the nightmare doesn’t come true.
Mitch Ciccarelli is the sexiest columnist in MMA. In addition to being the longest running featured columnist in B/R MMA history and being the host of the edgy podcast MMA Mass Debation, Ciccarelli is also currently serving in the United States Air Force. Follow him on Twitter @mitchciccarelli.
Regardless of how he got it done, Court McGee was glad to get back in the fight after 11 months on the shelf. 
NEW ORLEANS – If 
Following a lackluster bout between Jonathan Brookins and Erik Koch at