Jake Shields..?

Once again we are forced to watch another display of a BJJ guy unable to get the fight to the ground against a high level wrestler with good striking..and the result was same as usual. I know jake used to wrestle in HS..but he is now faced with many Div 1 all Americans in any weight class he would enter. This is the UFC, not Strikeforce. Unless he re-discovers his wrestling base to go along with his BJJ skills..his road will get no easier. Some 10th Planet JJ would help too..the only true system of JJ relevant in Today's MMA in my opinion.

We saw Jake take down Dan Henderson repeatedly. Dan Henderson is an Olympic caliber wrestler and that fight was a weight class heavier. Jake is a great grappler all the way around. I would say this had way more to do with where his mind is at right now with the passing of his dad. Jake will be back and stronger. He hasn't got stopped like that and has fought tough competition for a while now.

honestly imo, 90 percent of MMA fighters these day are the following

a wrestler
a half decent striker

I mean when you got top level JJ guys like damien maia going out and having more or less kickboxing matches instead of attempting to get guys to the ground you know somethings up.

Anybody that can do that to Jake is beast. Analyze one fight all day long. Ellenburger is a Juggernaut.

booby i agree..bjj couldnt of help that..sorry

I think the point is valid even if this fight wasn't the best example. Is there room at the top of the UFC for a grappler with limited striking? Is it easier to train Takedown defense than Takedowns? If so does that mean that a decent wrestler with better striking will always prevail against the BJJ-based fighter simply because the fight won't get to the ground?

Shields is a great wrestler and BJJ practitioner, and as such he represents grappling's greatest hope: A guy who can credibly get the fight to the ground and finish it from there (sorry Jon Fitch, that ain't you). Ricardo Almeida was the last great hope, in my opinion, but look where he ended up.

Look at Vagner Rocha. A world-class BJJ fighter, who will likely never see a main card. Sure, he won last night, but only because he fought another BJJ fighter, albeit a less talented one, who wanted to take him down. It's frustrating to see talented ground specialists get shut down before they can even showcase their skills. Like being one of those soldiers in Saving Private Ryan who gets shredded by machine gun fire before he gets a chance to storm the beach.

jake is a badass, no way around it...but ellenberger just put it to him...mma isnt very clear cut, it may be that shields would take him down and get the sub. 9 times out of 10, but last night was that 1 time where he couldnt...just wasnt his night

I think the issue is evolution. There are more ways to get a take down than to bull rush. There's more to take downs than a shot. IMO, for MMA, all grapplers should attempt TD's from the clinch. I know if I were a pro MMA guy, I would not want to shoot for a double/single with the risk of catching a knee or uppercut. I'd rather look for a set up to get in the clinch. From there work my TD's. I think if Jake would've went with that approach he'd get him down. Unless your shot is lightning like, say GSP or Lesnar, I wouldn't recommend it. Otherwise, guys need to get more creative with their takedowns.





The Jake fight isn't a good example though. In this case it was killer instinct hungry young fighter catching the unsuspecting underestimating vet. I mean seriously, when in the thai plum, since when is it a good idea to duck TOWARD the knee? Jake had a brain fart. Juggernaut fought super smart and hungry and got a well deserved win.

And when you add in the fact that Jake Shields dad died like less 3 weeks ago, you get a really distracted fighter. Shields was way overdue for a knockout, but it was pretty much guaranteed he was going to lose this fight with whats going in his life.