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Taming the Crazy Horse - January 25th, 2007 vs. Heath Herring (UFC Fight Night 8)
Heath Herring was making his debut in the UFC after a long and lengthy career in Japan and elsewhere around the world, but it was O'Brien who had the impressive performance to announce his seeming arrival in the UFC.
After two previous victories in the Octagon and a 9-0 record, O'Brien was more than a game opponent for Herring. From the outset, both were very tentative to begin with until Herring landed a huge shot that put O'Brien down. Herring would pounce down to try to apply a choke but Jake would get out of that position and transition to the top to start the ground and pound.
Herring tried to transition multiple times and O'Brien continued to stay in a dominant position, taking Herring's back and nearly locking in a rear naked choke. They would get back to their feet and O'Brien got a takedown that would be a theme for the rest of the night.
In the second round O'Brien again got an early takedown and almost immediately got to the mount. He ended up opening a cut by Herring's left eye and smothered him from the top position. He'd scramble back to his feet but be brought right back down where O'Brien would hold on and throw some intermittent punches to close out the round.
Ahead on the scorecards, the third round say O'Brien get takedown after takedown after takedown on Herring. Herring would complain about inactivity from O'Brien here but Jake was holding his position. Herring eventually got up to his feet and dropped O'Brien with another big punch, but, unable to capitalize on the ground once again, he found himself getting taken down by O'Brien once more. O'Brien would then ride it out to a major victory, his tenth in a row, against won of the most experienced heavyweight fighters today.
Bitten by the Pitbull - March 1st, 2008 vs. Andrei Arlovski (UFC 82: Pride of a Champion)
O'Brien came into his bout with Arlovski a 10-0 professional and off his biggest win to date a year earlier. It had been so long because he was suffering from a chronic spinal injury that had kept him out of his last scheduled bout after the Herring win. Arlovski was on his way out of the UFC, as he would not renew his contract after this bout and would go on to fight for Affliction, EliteXC and Strikeforce in the next year and a half.
The first round of this fight was a bit of a stalemate. O'Brien went for takedowns, Andrei stuffed them. Rinse. Repeat. This went on until finally O'Brien got Arlovski to the ground and held his position ala the Herring fight. He would not go unharmed, however, as Arlovski opened up a cut on the top of O'Brien's head with an elbow.
The second round was a bit listless, with both fighters working a little lazily, although Arlovski was landing some crisp strikes and leg kicks at times. O'Brien would finally get a takedown, but Arlovski didn't allow him to do anything with it. They got back to their feet and this time it would be Arlovski with the trip takedown and getting into mount. Arlovski continued raining down shots from the mount until the ref was forced to stop it, giving Jake his first career loss.
The Cain to his Abel - July 19, 2008 vs. Cain Velasquez (UFC Fight Night 14)
O'Brien returned to action fairly quickly after the Arlovski bout, taking on rising young heavyweight Cain Velasquez on the thrown together Fight Night 14 card. Things would continue on the downward trend for O'Brien in this fight.
Already a bit of an undersized heavyweight, the size disparity came to light against Velasquez, who on top of being simply a larger and stronger fighter was actually a more accomplished wrestler than O'Brien as well.
This was the worst night of O'Brien's professional career, as Velasquez got him to the ground and locked him in the crucifix position where he was rendered unable to defend the non-stop barrage of punishment that was being delivered. The bout was mercifully stopped just over two minutes into the first round. It would be O'Brien's last heavyweight bout.
The Drop Down - January 31st, 2009 vs. Christian Wellisch (UFC 94: Penn vs. St. Pierre II)
Both O'Brein and Wellisch made the drop from the heavyweight division to light heavyweight for this bout on January's UFC 94 card. O'Brien was in need of a win big time after dropping two straight, and he did what he needed to in this bout.
Through three rounds of action, O'Brien repeatedly took Wellisch down, scoring points and doing some damage. Wellisch was the one to press forward throughout, however, and in one of the judges' eyes won the fight as it was a split decision, but O'Brien battered Wellisch's face and scored more on the takedowns to gain the victory.
He's now looking to continue in the win column at 205 when he meets Jon Jones at UFC 100. It's sure to be a great back and forth fight between two very young and talented strikers and wrestlers.
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Jamie Penick, editor-in-chief
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