His name is Jake "The Juggernaunt" Ellenberger. He is a beast, and though he has been on a bit of a down streak here is why I think Jake is going to bounce back at UFC 201.
Jake has an excellent wrestling background. The University of Nebraska-Omaha has been known for putting out great wrestlers. He is constantly working on his grappling game and is always focused. Jake is a purple belt in Brazilian Jui-Jitsu. When he gets an opponent to the ground, he is always looking for the finish, whether by KO, TKO or submission (remember Josh Koscheck):
Striking is one of the things Jake likes to do. He throws a lot of combos and makes sure that they are hitting on all cylinders. Jake loves his left hook and when you watch him in his fights he lands his right hand and tends to KO people quickly. Did I mention that he has one punch KO power, he has the crazy ability to hit a guy and put them out with one punch (Sean Pierson can relate to this)
One thing I would like to see Jake do more often is utilize his leg kicks. When he was fighting Nate Marquardt was using his kicks, Nate was having trouble coming on the inside and landing his own shots. Eventually Marquardt started to fight Jake's style of fight and the end result up like this:
Throwing from a Muay Thai clinch is underrated when it comes to Jake, he has the ability to close out fights with it. Just ask Jake Shields:
Now I am not going out and saying that Matt Brown is not going to be a push-over. Matt Brown is coming off of lose to Demian Maia, who at one time was considered to be a title-contender. Matt Brown has good hands.
In my opinion Jake is going to need to utilize his striking game but also look to take the fight to the ground and grind the fight out. Matt Brown does like to look for the counter punches but, Jake does not take a lot of risk in throwing his punches. I think that if Jake can take the fight to Matt Brown: control the cage, grind the fight out to the ground Matt Brown is going to have a difficult time trying to get the win.
With Both fighters coming off of loses, this could be the time where Jake bounces back and starts making his title run once again. Just remember this:
------UPDATE------
Let's update since I wrote this article two weeks before UFC 200. Jake beat Matt Brown via TKO in the first round. Jake came out of the gates and landed a nasty right hand, which immediately dropped Matt to the ground. Jake went to finish the fight but Matt was able to pull guard. Once Jake got up from Matt's guard, Matt went to pressure the fight which was not allowing Jake to throw his punches. Jake landed his a left kick to the abdomen of Matt Brown which instantly dropped him. From there it was a vicious barrage of punches and hammerfist to Matt Brown which stopped the fight.
The crazy thing is Jake had been bouncing from gym to gym trying to find a place to call home since Mark Munoz closed up shop. Jake was actually cut by the UFC prior to this fight and asked Dana White for one more shot, which he gave him. Jake was able to utilize that opportunity and take full advantage of it. On Fox Sports, Stephen "Wonderboy" Thompson openly admitted to being hit with the same right hand and dropping. Jake is a bench mark in the UFC and should be treated as one. I would like to see who the UFC tries to throw at Jake next.
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