In the first UFC main event on Fuel TV, Jake Ellenberger and Diego Sanchez entertained fans and earned Fight of the Night honors for their three-round battle for a potential shot at interim welterweight champion Carlos Condit. The early stages of the f…
In the first UFC main event on Fuel TV, Jake Ellenberger and Diego Sanchez entertained fans and earned Fight of the Night honors for their three-round battle for a potential shot at interim welterweight champion Carlos Condit.
The early stages of the fight saw Ellenberger besting Sanchez in the striking department, landing powerful counter-punches as the former TUF winner blitzed forward. At one point in the first round, Ellenberger dropped his foe with a left hand, but Sanchez was able to recover and avoid being finished for the first time in a three-round fight.
In a much closer second round, Ellenberger gained an edge on the scorecards with a late takedown and damaging elbows as the stanza came to an end.
Realizing he needed to make something happen to get back into the fight, Sanchez came out strong in the third. As Sanchez started heating up, Ellenberger used his wrestling to take the fight to the ground, but the rising contender was quickly reversed and began eating big shots.
Though Sanchez worked diligently to earn a stoppage victory in the third round, time ran out and Ellenberger was awarded the decision victory that could put him in line for a title shot—and rematch—with Condit.
Sean Smith is a Featured Columnist for Bleacher Report MMA. For the latest insight and updates on everything MMA, you can follow Sean on Twitter @SeanSmithMMA.
Jake Ellenberger went the full three rounds with Diego Sanchez in the UFC on Fuel main event welterweight clash and, with the performance he put on, it’s a sure-fire bet that he’ll soon be knocking on the door of the 170-lb. title holder, w…
Jake Ellenberger went the full three rounds with Diego Sanchez in the UFC on Fuel main event welterweight clash and, with the performance he put on, it’s a sure-fire bet that he’ll soon be knocking on the door of the 170-lb. title holder, whoever that maybe when the time comes.
Albeit, he didn’t have things all his own way against Sanchez, Ellenberger still showed why he is a force to be reckoned with in one of the most precarious divisions the Ultimate Fighting Championship has.
Thus far, the NCAA Division-ll wrestler has taken care of business—adding the likes of Mike Pyle, Jake Shields and now Sanchez to his win column, which has so far resulted in a six-fight winning streak for “The Juggernaut.”
His only hiccup in the Octagon to date was his split decision defeat to Carlos Condit.
That said, which five contests could Ellenberger take next or more to the point, which fights could lead to an eventual tilt at UFC gold?
After a standout opening event for the UFC on Fuel TV, which featured a main event between welterweight standouts Jake Ellenberger and Diego Sanchez, Dana White is making some changes, including making all main events five rounds.”We blew it,…
After a standout opening event for the UFC on Fuel TV, which featured a main event between welterweight standouts Jake Ellenberger and Diego Sanchez, Dana White is making some changes, including making all main events five rounds.
“We blew it,” White said of the main event not being five rounds. “It should have been a five-round fight. As I was sitting here tonight, I was looking at the fight going, yeah, this should have been five rounds.”
Ellenberger walked away with a unanimous decision victory, but Sanchez was able to turn things around in the third round and get his opponent’s back. It was the turning point in the fight, but it was also the final round and one that would not be enough to give Sanchez the win.
“They will be five-round fights from now on,” White continued. “He (Ellenberger) has looked fantastic. He’s on a roll. At the press conference, Diego Sanchez said, ‘This is the toughest dude I ever fought.’ He said, ‘I hit this guy with some big shots, he wouldn’t go away,’ and those two both showed a lot of respect to each other in the press conference.”
“For Jake Ellenberger, beating Diego Sanchez is a big deal,” White said. “Diego Sanchez is like fighting a zombie. The guy has never been finished, has never been knocked out, never been submitted.”
Many fans are anticipating a rematch between Ellenberger and current interim UFC welterweight champion Carlos Condit. Ellenberger lost a controversial split decision to Condit when he made his UFC debut in 2009.
“I think if I’m Carlos Condit, and the Diaz match is available, I take the Diaz match. If not, I probably sit around and wait for GSP,” White said of a possible Condit vs. Diaz rematch. “It makes all the sense in the world.”
Condit won the interim title when he defeated Diaz earlier this month at UFC 143. The decision was unanimous for “The Natural Born Killer,” but many thought Diaz deserved the victory.
With reigning UFC welterweight champion Georges St-Pierre out of action till the end of the year, Condit may have to take another fight before fighting him, and it could come against Ellenberger or Diaz.
“We blew it tonight. It should have been a five-round fight,” Dana White told MMAJunkie following his promotion’s first main event on Fuel TV.As the final seconds ticked away in an exciting bout between welterweight contenders Jake Ellenberge…
“We blew it tonight. It should have been a five-round fight,” Dana White told MMAJunkie following his promotion’s first main event on Fuel TV.
As the final seconds ticked away in an exciting bout between welterweight contenders Jake Ellenberger and Diego Sanchez, fans were left wondering why they wouldn’t get to see the pair of fighters go at for another two rounds, as five-round, main-event fights have become the standard on the UFC’s pay-per-view and FOX events.
After announcing in mid-2011 that all future main events would be five-round affairs, the UFC narrowed that statement to exclusively include the featured fights on its biggest shows.
However, the outstanding performance displayed by Ellenberger and Sanchez on Wednesday night led the UFC brass to recognize their mistake. As such, the UFC is now serious when they say that all of their main events will be scheduled for 25 minutes inside the Octagon.
“Already thought and done,” White said of future Fuel TV and FX main events being five-round fights.
Not only will this change bring more entertainment for fans who had hoped to see 10 more minutes of Ellenberger and Sanchez, but it promotes consistency.
If the organization is going to feature fights with title-shot implications at their smaller shows, such as UFC on Fuel TV’s main event, it only makes sense to treat those fights the same as they would a main event between top contenders on a pay-per-view or FOX card.
Sean Smith is a Featured Columnist for Bleacher Report MMA. For the latest insight and updates on everything MMA, you can follow Sean on Twitter @SeanSmithMMA.
The UFC’s debut show on Fuel TV is in the books, and fans were treated to a potential fight of the year candidate in the main event. Diego Sanchez and Jake Ellenberger went toe-to-toe for three solid rounds, delivering the dogfight that Sanchez h…
The UFC’s debut show on Fuel TV is in the books, and fans were treated to a potential fight of the year candidate in the main event.
Diego Sanchez and Jake Ellenberger went toe-to-toe for three solid rounds, delivering the dogfight that Sanchez had promised, and put on a show for the fans in Omaha.
Ellenberger had the hometown crowd firmly behind him, and he went out and made them proud for the first two rounds, landing big shots and scoring a takedown or two to get a firm lead on the judges’ scorecards.
With Sanchez realizing he had to go out and finish in the third, he came out and threw everything he had at “The Juggernaut,” eventually took Ellenberger’s back and landed some brutal ground-and-pound for the latter half of the round.
In the end, the hometown favorite did just enough to earn the decision win, and Ellenberger took another huge step towards his goal of becoming a UFC champion.
The bonuses for the inaugural UFC on Fuel card totaled $200,000 with $50,000 going to each fighter in the fight of the night, knockout of the night and submission of the night.The easiest choice was for submission of the night. In w…
The bonuses for the inaugural UFC on Fuel card totaled $200,000 with $50,000 going to each fighter in the fight of the night, knockout of the night and submission of the night.
The easiest choice was for submission of the night. In what has become a disappointing trend, there was a lack of victories, thanks to tapouts. Most fights either ended in knockout or decision wins.
Only one fighter was able to buck the new trend, and that was Ivan Menjivar who was able to submit John Albert by rear-naked choke. Menjivar battled back from a bad spot with Albert having kicked and punched him badly.
He was then able to find the opening and slapped the choke on. It not only got him the come from behind win, it got him some extra pocket money as well.
Before that, fans got the treat of seeing a submission battle with both men grappling on a high level and showing different Brazilian jiu-jitsu moves. It was one of the better fights of the night, and if not for the eventual winner, might have taken the prize home.
The winner of fight of the night was already a safe bet when Diego Sanchez was announced for the main tilt. He, just for all his wrestling credentials, loves to stand and trade.
He did just that, and while he lost the majority of it, he was able to crack Ellenberger with a few left hands while they were in the final stanza. It wasn’t enough to win the decision, but he did do enough to win the bonus.
The last bonus was the knockout of the night, and while a decent amount of fighters got a KO, none did it better then Stipe Miocic. Not only did he knock out his opponent, he did it in the first round.
Miocic didn’t let the bull rush of his opponent, Phillip De Fries, faze him, keeping calm even when he had a few punches land against his head.
His patience paid off as he landed a straight right which damaged De Fries and then quickly followed up. The bonus is great, and the short amount of time it took Miocic to get it along with the win means he will probably be stepping into the Octagon soon.
Now with a win over Joey Beltran and a knockout of the night bonus, Miocic should gear up for the level increase he is bound to be subjected to. Especially after doing so on the main card of a TV fight.
At the end of the night, the bonuses were given out fairly, and the best bonus went to the fans who got to see every fight on TV instead of potentially missing them on Facebook.
It’s too bad there isn’t a cash prize as well.
Matthew Hemphill writes for the MMA and professional wrestling portion of Bleacher Report. He also hosts a blog elbaexiled.blogspot.com that focuses on books, music, comic books, video games, film and generally anything that could be related to the realms of nerdom.
“We blew it tonight. It should have been a five-round fight,”