UFC targeting welterweight bout between Jake Shields and Jake Ellenberger for fall event

By: Jamie Penick, MMATorch Editor-in-Chief

UFC welterweight Jake Ellenberger has been publicly expressing his desire to fight Jake Shields since the former Strikeforce Middleweight Champion signed with the UFC in 2010, and now it appears he'll be getting his wish.

According to a report from MMAFighting.com, the two Jakes have verbally agreed to meet in a fight this fall. Though no event has been revealed for their bout as of yet, the report suggests November's UFC 138 event in San Jose, Calif. could land the fight.

The surging Ellenberger believes he can defeat Shields, and has said so on multiple occasions over the last year while continuing a four fight win streak in the UFC. Ellenberger is 8-2 in his last ten fights, dropping a decision to Rick Story in 2008 and a split decision to Carlos Condit in his UFC debut.

In the Condit fight, Ellenberger nearly finished the bout in the first round, dropping Condit multiple times. However, Condit survived, and came back to win the second and third rounds on two judges scorecards to take the fight. Since then, however, Ellenberger has gone on a tear in the UFC's welterweight division, defeating Mike Pyle, John Howard, Carlos Eduardo Rocha and Sean Pierson in succession. In all but the Rocha fight in that stretch, Ellenberger has stopped his opponents with strikes.

Shields will look to rebound from his first loss in over six years, which came to UFC Welterweight Champion Georges St. Pierre at UFC 129 in April. In that six year stretch, Shields had compiled 15 straight wins, a stretch that included victories over Carlos Condit, Yushin Okami, Mike Pyle, Paul Daley, Robbie Lawler, Jason "Mayhem" Miller, Martin Kampmann and Dan Henderson.

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Penick's Analysis: I've been very interested in seeing this fight since Ellenberger began calling out Shields last fall. Ellenbeger hasn't fought the level of competition that Shields has, but he's come on strong and defeated a number of fighters in impressive fashion in the UFC, and that's what good fighters are supposed to do against lesser competition. He's got a skillset that can work favorably against a fighter like Shields, and though the former Strikeforce and EliteXC Champ will be the favorite into this fight, Ellenberger has a very good chance in that fight. This should be a really good matchup on whatever card it winds up on, and if it's in San Jose in November, it will be essentially in Shields' back yard.

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