There was plenty of trash talk flying between Rory MacDonald (pictured left) and Jake Ellenberger (pictured right) so there was reason to expect fireworks in the octagon.
Ellenberger was the one throwing verbal jabs at MacDonald with comments like, “All I said to him is prepare for some horizontal television time and I meant it,” and “This isn’t a Tears for Fears look-alike contest.”
Those are some pretty strong barbs; too bad Ellenberger didn’t back it up in the cage.
MacDonald let the insults slide and proceeded to throw real jabs as opposed to his opponent’s spoken ones — and he threw a lot of them.
Meanwhile, for all his bellicose pre-fight taunting., Ellenberger hardly mounted any type of offense in the fight.
Perhaps we should have known better. UFC President Dana White seemed to.
“When you get these fights where guys talk sh*t and a lot of stuff goes back and forth, those fights always suck,” White said at the post-fight press conference.
Suck, it did.
Ellenberger spent much of his time sitting, getting hit repetitively with MacDonald jabs and loading up winging hooks and missing.
Hardly what we expected from a fight that was arguably as big, if not bigger than, the main event.
“It was a highly anticipated fight that actually overshadowed the main event and didn’t live up to the hype,” White said
MacDonald defended his strategy saying he stuck to his game plan.
“I think I did exactly what I was supposed to do. I kept up my end,” MacDonald said. “He’s a counter-puncher and a very powerful puncher and I was waiting for my opportunities…I felt I did the right thing, it’s just I think I might have needed a few more minutes and I would have a good chance to finish the fight when I had his back.”
Ellenberger wasn’t as pleased.
“Just really more disappointed in myself,” Ellenberger said. “It wasn’t my night. Just didn’t have a good night and didn’t pull the trigger.”
Now laying a dud happens. Boring fights happen. Fighters inevitably hit a wall and have bad fights. That’s not the problem.
The problem lies in when you call out a fighter and say you’re going to knock them out. When you say they aren’t even a top-10 opponent and that they are created by the media and then lay a dud.
Ellenberger lit the fuse in the days leading up to the fight, only to watch it fizzle and die in the cage.
Eric Smith is an MMA and fantasy football contributor with Craveonline.com. Follow him on twitter or @EricSmith_SP or email him at ejmith7@asu.edu.
Photo Credit: Getty
