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Jake Ellenberger: Carlos Rocha was a more dangerous UFC opponent than Jake Shields is
By Zach Arnold | September 12, 2011
“It’s been a good, hard 8-10 weeks, I haven’t had any injuries which has been, it’s been a blessing but… I’m ready for training to be over. We had a tough day today, a real good hard push. I mean, I’m excited to fight, you know. Jake Shields’ is just another guy, another guy in the way for me to get to a world title, so I’m excited.” — FightHubTV.com interview
INTERVIEWER: “And I feel that a lot of people have you under the radar, really underestimating you.”
JAKE ELLENBERGER: “That’s probably true, it really doesn’t matter to me. Jake Shields, like I said, he’s beat some high-level guys, I don’t think it’s a huge step up in competition at all. I mean, honestly, I think Carlos Rocha, the guy I beat back in February, I think he was more dangerous than Jake Shields. You know, Jake Shields, he presents some different problems for me but I’m prepared, I’m ready, I’ve done everything I can to prepare for this fight. I’m going to make him as uncomfortable as possible, so he’s got a lot more to worry about than I do.”
INTERVIEWER: “Going back to tactics for this fight right here, GSP some say that he didn’t pressure him as much as many like to see him. Martin Kampmann pressured Jake a lot and a lot of people felt Jake, conditioning-wise, they called that into question. Do you plan on pressuring Jake more than those two last opponents he’s had?”
JAKE ELLENBERGER: “I can assure that, from bell to bell… I’m sure as his night follows day I’m going to pressure him from bell to bell. GSP didn’t pressure him at all, Martin Kampmann did (but) I think it was a little too late when he started to pressure him. It’s going to be pressure from bell to bell. I’m going to make him tired. The thing about Kampmann is I think if he could have kept position and could have controlled his wrestling and the gates of where the fight went he could have pulled out the victory there but, you know, wrestling’s going to make you tired and I’ve been there, I’ve been there a million times so… you know, that’s… I’m going to fight him like I do everyone else, there’s going to be pressure the whole fight.”
INTERVIEWER: “A lot of people are really worried to get on the ground with Jake knowing his BJJ credentials but I feel like knowing the guys that train over here at Reign and the amount of talent that comes in here, people like Werdum helping the team over here that you might be in a position where you’ve seen a lot of the things that Jake could throw at you and you’re fully prepared.”
JAKE ELLENBERGER: “Yeah, you know, listen, a fight is a fight and you can’t respect the guy you’re fighting. You can’t be afraid, you can’t be timid, you can’t fight timid. Hesitation will get you caught, it’s get you beat. I have, you know, I am aware at what he’s good at, I’m aware of his strengths but it’s not going to effect the way that I fight him. I train with plenty of high-level guys. Honestly, I don’t respect, when I fight him, I’m not going to respect anything. I’m going to come after him and find a way to win. But… I’m not going to fight timid at all. His ground game, you know, sure, he’s got a good ground game but… that doesn’t matter, you know. He’s going to hit and he’s going to get hit a lot.”
Here’s an interview from last Friday that Jake Shields did on Comcast Sportsnet Bay Area w/ Dave Benz. It was tough for him to do this, but he’s a trooper and came through in the end. Of course, when you’re an independent contractor and yet considered “the exclusive property of the UFC” as Lorenzo Fertitta likes to say about his fighters, you have to be a company man. Ask Kurt Pellegrino about that.
As for whether or not Ellenberger could get a Welterweight title shot if he beats Shields, the answer is… perhaps, yes, because Jon Fitch sure as hell doesn’t look like he’s ever getting a title shot again.
Jake Shields (-170) vs. Jake Ellenberger (+150)
Card line-up for UFC 9/17 New Orleans event
Will be interesting to see if Spike runs a bunch of Bellator ads during the UFC telecast and if there’s any tension between the parties at the event.
Topics: Media, MMA, UFC, Zach Arnold | 13 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |
I see this as a rather one-sided victory for Jake Ellenberger. I’m about as sure of this one as I was of picking Cormier to beat Silva. Easy pickings.
“Will be interesting to see if Spike runs a bunch of Bellator ads during the UFC telecast and if there’s any tension between the parties at the event.”
1) Can SpikeTV contractually do that?
2) SpikeTV can’t put Bellator on their channel until 2013…. What’s the point of wasting any commercial time on them at this point?
Never underestimate the petulance of a TV suit. I’m expecting a full bombardment of Bellator MTV2 ads on the telecast. My dream scenario is if Spike TV tries to force Mike Goldberg to do an on-air, during-the-fight Bellator ad read. That, my friends, would be priceless.
I don’t, but I also know the petulance of Dana and the UFC and if Spike wants to play that game so will the UFC. Right now it’s in their best interest to ride things out and play ball, it’s clear to me that after their comments on their want to get Bellator but they can’t because of the UFC rights that they want a payoff. And the last way to get that is to piss of Dana, he already went on record to say that he owe’s them one for pulling the counterprogramming stunt against Versus.
There is only about a small incentive for Zuffa to payoff SpikeTV to buyback their old TV footage for 2012.
And that small incentive comes in the form of the first few shows on FX competing against old UFC shows. It will confuse the viewers short term. Eventually those viewers will smarten up and realize the UFC content is now on FX. And that problem will basically be gone.
The rest is only a plus to the UFC. It will block Bellator for an entire year. And during the year Bellator could go out of business due to their owners financial issues in other ventures. Also, SpikeTV would basically being help to promote the UFC when they have zero vested interest in the company for the next 7 years. The UFC will be on two channels instead of one….. That’s great.
The article on MMA Junkie were the Viacom Rep made it seem like the UFC was really the ones who were in a bad position was comical….
The only thing Spike can do if they want to be
dicksis to hang on to the non-live broadcast rights and then only air them on ppv nights to confuse fans. Of course, do you want to keep the fans that would be that gullible. On second thought, those are the perfect fans to sell Belfort vs Cung Le ppvs to.And I wonder if somehow the Zuffa marketing team got confused and thought this Saturday’s card in New Orleans was a Strikeforce event, because they’re treating it as badly as they did last weekend show, Although, in their defense, it is about 1/4 as interesting as the Grand Prix lineup was even without OVereem.
Shields will beat him.
People love to write Shields off because he is boring and one-dimensional, but the guy is a winner. Ellenberger is going to try and take his head off and Jake will probably eat a few haymakers, but he has a fantastic chin and is relentless in his takedowns. He’ll put Ellenberger on his back, mount him, and ‘punish’ him with his pathetic ground & pound until the round ends. Wash, rinse, and repeat for three rounds. Shields via UD.
Ellenberger is a good, top ten WW.
Shields is a guy whose dominated everybody not named GSP over the past 5 years.
Shields will win.
The question is how does his father’s death affect him?
I honesly believe it will have little negative effect on him. Actually, it would have more of a “Favre affect” on him IMO rather than it harming anything.
But you are right, that is a big x-factor.
well said nottheface. I in fact forgot there was a ufc show this weekend! I know Leben is fighting but I don’t remember anything else. I just want to see him fight Wanderlei Silva at every ppv.
Ellenberger is right; the only people Shields is a danger to are people who try to operate machinery during a Fitch fight and end up falling asleep.
Spike is smoking crack rocks if they think the counter-programming threat is going to get Zuffa to open their wallet and buy back the 2012 rights of the UFC library. Zuffa would be pleased as punch if Spike prominently features the library in 2012 while Bellator toils in obscurity for another year on MTV2.
If they really want Zuffa to pay, they should be threatening to bury the library for the entire year. That is the kind of thing Zuffa does not want to happen. Saturation bombing of the airwaves with Zuffa content is a big part of the business model. Going a full year with no ‘canned’ content on the air would hurt them much more than a year of counter-programming.
Did Shields call his fight with GSP a close decision? Really? It’s amazing how time can tend to morph reality to something that Jake finds acceptable. But I guess that’s the only way Jake can justify another payday is by thinking he could possibly get another title shot. It’s just sad.
It was a close decision.
Shields only lost by one point (48-47) on two of the judges scorecards. He might not have deserved to win, but he very nearly did.