My God this welterweight division. No other weight class in the world hosts a murderer’s row from top to bottom quite like 170. You have the kingpin, GSP, then from there you have a motley collection of dudes that could legit hold the title and KEEP it for quite a while. Take Jake Ellenberger for example, a dude who is taking on Rory MacDonald at UFC on FOX 8. He’s won 11 out of his last 13 fights, and has ten UFC victories in the last 4 years. That’s seriously tough to do. Especially considering his only losses come to Carlos Condit (via split-decision) and a absolutely wild KO loss to Martin Kampmann. If you have to lose, that’s not bad company to lose to.
With 35 total fights at only 28-years-old, it may be scary to say, but Jake Ellenberger could very likely be improving still, and with a skillset like his, that’s one dangerous fighter. Rory MacDonald is no slouch either, in fact, he’s been touted as the next big thing for over a year now, but Jake doesn’t think to highly of him:
“I’m not really sold on him. In my opinion the only top 10 guy in our division he’s fought he’s lost to, and that’s Carlos Condit. I think he’s definitely a young up and comer, but nothing special … It’s still surprising to me, for some reason some people in this industry think he’s a top five guy, which I don’t even think he’s a top 10 guy. But, for some reason he has a lot of hype. It must be because he trains with GSP. And he trains at that, whatever, he trains at that gym. I think I have fought and defeated tougher opponents in my UFC career than Rory MacDonald.”
Tough words, and one has to think that with a win over Rory, Jake could be in line to fight the winner of GSP/Johny Hendricks? Maybe so… Maybe so…
