The Juggernaut MMA News Report 02.09.12: Sanchez vs. Ellenberger Preview
Posted by Jonathan Solomon on 02.09.2012
Diego Sanchez and Jake Ellenberger go to war and more next week. Check out the UFC on Fuel Preview to get caught up! Plus, check out the latest news on the Condit/Diaz rematch controversy, Ben Askren's next title defense, Miesha Tate talks more Ronda Rousey, and more!
UFC on Fuel: Sanchez vs. Ellenberger Preview
Diego Sanchez vs. Jake Ellenberger
The UFC returns to mid-week shows beginning in six nights so it's time to take a look at a the first UFC on Fuel card. You may not be one of the hundreds of thousands of people watching it live but that doesn't mean you should totally forget about the show. The main event is a battle between top welterweight contenders Diego Sanchez and Jake Ellenberger, each needing to kick off their 2012 with a bang.
Now, while neither man is going to receive a UFC title shot anytime soon because the division appears to be on ice with Georges St. Pierre's injury, both men enter the year with varying kinds of momentum. For Diego Sanchez, he has won two fights in a row, bot decisions over Paulo Thiago and Martin Kampmann. The last time you saw him, it was March 2011 and his body shape changed dramatically as he appeared "soft." He had a war with Kampmann in which he was cut open but managed to do enough to get the judges support. Most recently, Sanchez was scheduled to return in September and December but a broken hand forced his removal from UFC 135 and 141, respectively.
For you trivia nuts, next week's fight will be Sanchez's first as a married man since tying the knot to his girlfriend last spring.
Meanwhile, Jake Ellenberger has been on a roll since joining the UFC in 2009. He took Carlos Condit to a decision in that fight and in the opinion of some, should have won (ironic how history repeats itself), but lost by split scores. Since then, the Nebraska native has reeled off five consecutive wins, including three last year over Carlos Eduardo Rocha, Sean Pierson and Jake Shields. That final fight was the one that pushed Ellenberger up the welterweight ladder in September. Fighting one of the most consistent welterweights, Ellenberger knocked out Shields in under a minute, becoming the first man to do so in over a decade.
In fact, of Ellenberger's previous six career wins, five have been by knockout or referee stoppage. Looking at Sanchez and his UFC career (which has spanned almost seven years), he has finished just five fights. The last fight he stopped in the first round was against David Bielkheden in the fight after he lost to Jon Fitch.
The point is, Diego Sanchez has a propensity for getting involved in long, drawn out wars. Including his time as a lightweight, he has been rocked in three of his last four fights. He was only effective from bell to bell in the Paulo Thiago contest in 2010. Both B.J. Penn and John Hathaway hurt him standing, as did Kampmann. Looking further into the details, we cannot forget the massive cut the TUF 1 alum suffered in the Penn fight. If you tag Sanchez, you can cut him. However, Sanchez's motor is unquestionable. He was out grappled by Josh Koscheck and Jon Fitch in 2007 and since then, no one has. Penn destroyed Sanchez with his striking and demolished him over the course of their five-round lightweight title bout. In the Hathaway decision, Sanchez was rocked early on and could not recover quick enough. Those are the exceptions because Diego is normally able to stand with most, whether he's bloody or not.
Jake Ellenberger has an equally effective balls to the wall style of fighting. He doesn't look like a knockout artist, perhaps because he's a solid grappler, but the 17 wins by knockout he has amassed will back up the claim. A former collegiate wrestler and a Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu purple belt, Ellenberger is not out of his element on the ground. In fact, the only occasion where he looked "off" in a UFC fight was the UFC 126 bout with Rocha. Carlos Eduardo Rocha had some success early striking and was nearly able to finish the fight on the ground with submissions. Ellenberger fought them off and recovered to have a strong second half of the fight and won the decision. Some blamed Ellenberger's shaky performance on the fact he was originally slated to fight Jon Fitch at the event (Fitch was pulled to fight B.J. Penn at UFC 127 about two months before the show) and he underestimated Rocha.
The fact that both men are bulls on the ground and odds are neither will be able to generally overpower the other, I look for this to develop into a kickboxing match. Ellenberger has never been knocked out and while Penn is the only man to finish Sanchez, he tends to take a lot of shots regardless. This is a three-round fight but both men are nearly always in good cardio shape for a fight either way. Perhaps, it's the fact Sanchez has not fought in nearly one year while Ellenberger had an impressive 2011 but I like Jake to take this fight winning the striking battle and taking a decision.
Stefan Struve vs. Dave Herman
'Ol Stefan Struve will turn 24-years old three days after this fight so he's expecting to award himself with career win number 23. However, Dave "Pee Wee" Herman is back for seconds in his UFC career following his TKO win over John-Olav Einemo last June.
In a weird twist, Herman was originally slated to fight Mike Russow in October but was pulled from the card due to a drug test came back positive for marijuana. The Texas Commission denied him a license although Herman has maintained his innocence, insisting he did not smoke (his explanation was that he was "around" people who do use it). In any event, Herman is back in the octagon as of next week.
Struve fought in October against Pat Barry and choked out the kickboxer to earn his sixth career UFC win. At 6'11 with a 84-inch reach, Struve is routinely the longest heavyweight in the UFC. In Dave Herman, you have a heavyweight standing at about 6'5 with a 77-inch reach.
Both men do not offer much in terms of surprises. Struve is a kickboxer with a BJJ purple belt who is able to outclass certain opponents on the ground. His only three UFC losses came against Junior dos Santos (TKO), Roy Nelson (TKO) and Travis Browne (KO). Opponents with that kind of power in their hands can end Struve's night. Dave Herman may be that kind of fighter.
Although Herman trains with Team Quest (noted for the quality of their wrestlers), he looks to finish fights as quickly as possible. Of his 23 career bouts, he has won 20 by knockout or submission. He has never lost by submission and as we saw in his UFC debut in June, he swings for the fences. In that fight, it was almost a detriment as he looked to be gassing pretty badly in the second round before he was ultimately able to finish Einemo.
Because Stefan Struve is always criticized for not always effectively using his reach and height advantage, I'm leaning towards Herman in this fight. He definitely has more power and he's not scared of throwing everything at the wall and asking questions later. Struve will need to avoid a lot of powerful punches and I am not confident in his ability to get this fight to the ground and force Herman into making a mistake.
MISC. UFC ON FUEL NOTES
- In middleweight action, 23-year old Braziian Ronny Markes returns to fight Aaron Simpson. Markes, who trains with Nova Uniao, defeated Karlos Vemola last summer in his UFC debut and is 12-1 overall. Simpson of Power MMA (many of the former Arizona State wrestlers also train there) went 3-0 in 2011 with a trio of decision wins over Mario Miranda, Brad Tavares and Eric Schafer.
- Heavyweight prospects will collide when Ohio's own Stipe Miocic (7-0 MMA, 1-0 UFC) battles Englishman Phillip De Fries (8-0-0-1 MMA, 1-0 UFC). Miocic was a bit of a duke of all trades as an amateur athlete. He was a successful collegiate baseball player and wrestler (Division-I) in addition to a Golden Gloves boxing champion. He finished his first six pro fights in MMA before debuting at UFC 136 and beating Joey Beltran by decision. De Fries is known as a grappler with seven wins by submission. He debuted in the octagon at UFC 138 with a decision win over Rob Broughton. Next week will be De Fries' American MMA debut.
- A pair of bantamweights looking to rebound from losses round out the TV portion of the card. TUF 14 alum T.J. Dillishaw (4-0 MMA, 0-1 UFC) fights Walel Watson (9-3 MMA, 1-1 UFC). Dillashaw was a favorite to win TUF 14 but lost in the finals to John Dodson when he was knocked out inside of two minutes. Waton last fought in December and lost a split decision to Yves Jabouin in Toronto. Prior to that, he debuted in October with a knockout win over Joseph Sandoval. Each of Watson's wins have come by knockout (2) or submission (7).
JUGGERNAUT NEWS BRIEFS
- It's official. UFC light heavyweight champion Jon Jones will fight Rashad Evans at UFC 145 in Atlanta, Georgia on April 21.. That is, if both men can stay healthy between now and then.
- Donald Cerrone vs. Yves Edwards has been booked for UFC on FX 3 on May 15.
- Brandon Vera is injured and taking his place to fight Thiago Silva on May 15 is Igor Pokrajac.
- TUF 14 alumnus Akira Corassani will officially make his UFC debut on Fuel this April 14 on the Sweden show. He will take on Jason Young who lost a pair of fights in 2011 to Dustin Poirier and Michihiro Omigawa.
- Wednesday morning, Dana White tweeted that Carlos Condit accepted a rematch with Nick Diaz. ((With such a close fight between the two last weekend, it makes the most sense. Especially with the fact GSP is out of action until November or December. If they fight again, we theoretically will get more of a decisive winner. Now watch them fight to a draw. )) According to rumors, Condit will receive a hefty bump in pay for requesting/taking the fight.
- Wednesday afternoon, rumors began mounting from the same source who broke news of Condit's acceptance that the fight was off with Diaz. The wording made it seem that Nick Diaz would be unable to fight. Whether this is simply a negotiating tactic from Diaz's camp or a legit conflict remains unknown. Stay tuned.
- Tatame.com reports Roger Gracie is about to sign with Black House (home of Anderson Silva, Lyoto Machida, the Nogueira's and others, most managed by Ed Soares and Jorge Guimaraes). Plus, Gracie is considering a drop down to middleweight (from 205-pounds) after being knocked out by King Mo Lawal in 2011.
- UFC on FOX 4 is set for August 4 at Staples Center in Los Angeles.
- Shogun Rua, announced on Twitter, has parted ways with longtime manager Eduardo Alonso.
- Confirmed yesterday, Bellator welterweight champion Ben Askren will make his second title defense on April 6 in Ontario, Canada at Bellator 46 against season five tournament winner Douglas Lima.
JUGGERNAUT VIDEO OF THE WEEK
Just under 30 days away from the much anticipated Strikeforce title fight between Miesha Tate and Ronda Rousey, there is bad blood between the two (to say the least). Here is an interview with Tate discussing all the talk from Rousey in the build to this fight (Ronda said recently she could beat up Tate and her boyfriend and fellow fighter, Bryan Caraway).
