UFC on Versus: Jones vs. Matyushenko will take place August 1, 2010 at the San Diego Sports Arena in San Diego, CA. In addition to quality bouts between “The Fireball Kid” Takanori Gomi (27-8) and “Daddy” Joe Stevenson (31-10) and “Bones” Jon Jones (10-1) and “The Janitor” Vladimir Matyushenko (24-4), the UFC has given us an excellent welterweight pairing between up and coming bruiser “Doomsday” John Howard (14-4) and NCAA wrestling coach Jake Ellenberger (21-5). Howard enters UFC on Versus on the heels of a one punch KO of “Ninja” Daniel Roberts (10-1) with a perfect 4-0 record with the promotion. His opponent brings a 1-1 UFC record to the cage following a second round stoppage of Mike Pyle (19-6-1). This fight is interesting because it is a step beyond a classical striker vs. grappler pairing; these two men are complete athletic opposites. On one side is Ellenberger, a wrestler turned MMA fighter who battled his way into the UFC over the course of four and a half years and 24 fights and went straight to the deep end of the talent pool against “Natural Born Killer” Carlos Condit (25-5). On the other when have “Doomsday”, a solid submission guy with a brutal Thai-boxing game who made the UFC in just over three years at a much more casual pace, fighting only 14 times and has struggled to get a fight against a true competitor despite notching off four wins in a row with a Fight of the Night bonus on just his second appearance. This is definitely a much more even fight than it looks like on paper and the reward for the winner: a match against “Rumble” Anthony Johnson (8-3) or a member of the AKA roadblock trio. Continue reading »
