UFC Fight Night 25 Parting Shots

Two Jakes entered the cage, but only one could win on Saturday night’s UFC Fight Night 25 (or if you prefer, “Battle on the Bayou”). On this night, Jake Ellenberger prevailed, giving Jake Shields his second straight loss in the process. Meanwhile, the rest of the card featured former TUF standouts and some good action on the prelims, as well. Here are my thoughts on what transpired Saturday night.

Is Shields a bust?

MMA breeds overreacting fans, so there was plenty of sentiment following Jake Shields’ destruction that Shields was always overrated, shouldn’t have been a title contender, or even shouldn’t be in the UFC any longer.

My thoughts on that? Too soon, my friends. Shields didn’t look good because he clumsily closed the distance and paid for it. His standup has never been outstanding by any means, and Ellenberger’s ability to hurt him quickly while standing only underscores Georges St. Pierre’s lack of aggressiveness in his bout with Shields.

I’m not of the opinion that we learned anything new about Shields in this bout. What we did learn is that Ellenberger is even better than imagined. If Shields is a legit top-level welterweight (and he is), than Ellenberger is, too. While many followers of MMA tend to think that the loser in a big fight was “overrated”, it is often the case that it’s the winner who was not rated correctly beforehand. Myself and many others underestimated Ellenberger, who is a definite top ten welterweight and possibly an intriguing future challenger for Georges St. Pierre.

Shields simply has to learn to pick his shots better, where “shots” means takedown attempts, not strikes. We have seen him get sloppy before (versus Dan Henderson, who planted Shields on his face momentarily in the first round of their encounter), but he hadn’t paid for it like this until Saturday night. With a number of high-level wrestlers in the welterweight division who also have great power in their hands, Shields will have to blend his strikes and takedowns a bit better than he did Saturday night if he ever wants to get a title shot again.

Johnny Cash approves

Though it was a tough break for Jason MacDonald, who sorely needed a win, it was good to see Alan Belcher get back on track with a dominating performance over “The Athlete”.

Myself and many others had Belcher ranked in the top ten for a long time for the very same attributes that he displayed against MacDonald. His pinpoint striking, killer instinct and athleticism will make for difficult matchups for many others in the middleweight division. Regardless of whether he has an unfortunate tattoo that appears to be a portrait of Johnny Cash with a massive cheekful of chewing tobacco, Belcher’s a first class talent. It’s good to see him back and healthy; he’s too good to have had his career end due to eye problems.

Say What?!?

“I thought I had a little fight left”- Jake Shields in his post-fight interview with Joe Rogan, indicating that the stoppage by Kevin Mulhall was a little hasty.

Now, come on. Shields spent the first several seconds after the fight officially ended wrestling the referee while apparently trying to secure a single-leg takedown. Are those the actions of a fighter who has fight left in him? I understand that fighters are brave people who would rather be knocked out cold than stop fighting while they’re still conscious, but when fighters unfairly throw referees under the bus for a perfectly logical stoppage, it only undermines the criticism that referees receive when there is a truly unwarranted stoppage.

For instance, the absolutely horrid stoppage at Bellator 50 on Saturday night in the fight between Brian Rogers and Victor O’Donnell. And one interesting note on that one: for all the fighters who get booed in their post-fight interviews after a bad stoppage or a poor decision, Rogers has been one of the first I’ve noticed to say the first thing that would come to my mind in his position: “It’s not my fault.” If I was in that situation, I’d be yelling into the mic, “why are you booing me? It’s not my fault he stopped the fight early!” It always frustrates me to see fighters get booed by dumb fans for something that the judges do or the ref does. You can’t really blame Rogers for descending to the level of full-blown WWE heel within a few minutes afterward, turning on the crowd and giving them some agitation in return.

The Bob Seger “Beautiful Loser” Award

Jonathan Brookins takes this one, as he fought a fight that may have earned him a win with some judges, as he controlled Erik Koch for much of their fifteen-minute fight. However, I think the judges did the right thing in awarding the bout to Koch, who also did well enacting his gameplan and certainly did more physical damage in what was, of course, a fight.

Though Brookins put on a fairly strong performance, it’s good to see judges actually rewarding fighting over positioning or grappling. If you aren’t using your grappling to improve position dramatically for a submission or strikes, it’s just not that effective.

Why You Don’t Bet on MMA

Before Saturday, Jake Shields had been finished once in 32 fights- by TKO eleven and a half years ago against little-known Cesar Gracie fighter Marty Armendarez. Even that took seven and a half minutes. Ellenberger finished Shields within a minute, a feat that no one else- including GSP, Dan Henderson, Yushin Okami, Jason “Mayhem” Miller or Robbie Lawler- has been able to do.

Movin’ On Up Award

We’ve got two burgers sharing this award- well, TJ Waldburger and Jake Ellenberger, at least. Waldburger turned Mike Stumpf around with a stinging leg kick right off the bat in their preliminary bout, then did something very unorthodox and took Stumpf’s back as he took too long returning to a proper striking position after the kick. He continued by controlling Stumpf and eventually beating him with a triangle choke at 3:52 of the first round. Then there’s Ellenberger, of course, who absolutely shattered Shields in the main event.

Holy $#!% Award

This obviously goes to Ellenberger, who steamrolled a guy who has never been dominated before, and in just 53 seconds, to boot. I wouldn’t mind seeing him against St. Pierre in 2012.

E-Mail Jon Hartley

Tags: Alan Belcher, Bellator, Brian Rogers, Erik Koch, Georges St. Pierre, horrible refereeing, Jake Ellenberger, Jake Shields, Jason MacDonald, Jonathan Brookins, TJ Waldburger, UFC, UFC Fight Night 25, Victor O'Donnell