The Ultimate Fighter Live: Jake Ellenberger vs. Martin Kampmann – Recap

Jake Ellenberger was coming into this fight on a huge run of six-straight victories in the UFC over very tough competition and the hype from the fans was unbelievable. He was the first man to finish Jake Shields in ten years and was on the verge of a title shot. Martin Kampmann had other plans for Ellenberger though and title aspirations of his own.

It was a battle of power versus technique as Ellenberger and Kampmann wasted no time in going to war in the main event. There were bad intentions in everything that Ellenberger was throwing and he had Kampmann in trouble in both the first and second round. Kampmann somehow survived and fired back with a right hand which rocked Ellenberger in the second. As he tried to recover against the cage, Kampmann smelled blood and stepped in on ‘The Juggernaut’, finishing his opponent with big knees from the clinch. The stoppage marks the first time Ellenberger has been stopped by strikes in his professional career and the first time he has been stopped since 2007.

Kampmann makes it three in a row with the win and could easily be viewed to be on a 7 fight streak as the only defeats in that time were highly debateable decision losses to Jake Shields and Diego Sanchez. Meanwhile, Ellenberger sees a six fight winning run snapped with the loss and his title aspirations suffer a severe setback.

The Ellenberger hype train has been derailed. To be honest I am not in the slightest bit shocked by it and I had actually picked Kampmann to win this fight. Ellenberger was exactly what I said earlier, Hype. I know these are ifs and buts but personally I don’t believe the Jake Shields fight would have gone the way it had if it wasn’t under the circumstances that it was and I also feel that had Diego Sanchez started quicker in their fight then he would have picked up a win. The way Diego handled Ellenberger in the third round of their fight showed that he still had a long way to go and now it’s time to go back and plug those holes in his game and come back stronger.