Jake Ellenberger worked with soldiers ahead of UFC 184 to tap into his 'dark side'
Anybody who watched UFC 180 last November barely recognized Jake Ellenberger as he fell to former "Ultimate Fighter" winner Kelvin Gastelum in the first round by rear naked choke in the night's co-main event.
Ellenberger looked listless and out of place as he faced Gastelum in a must-win fight after dropping back-to-back losses to Rory MacDonald and Robbie Lawler. It was the sort of performance that made you question whether Ellenberger really had anything left in the tank.
Maybe the 10-year veteran was just running out of gas.
Ellenberger is the first person to admit he wasn't the same fighter last November as the guy who crushed Nate Marquardt in just three minutes at UFC 158. He wasn't the same person who destroyed Jake Shields in just 58 seconds in 2011.
Something was missing.
"I won't really spend a lot of time talking about it; it's in the rearview mirror now. I made some mistakes, for sure, but more than anything I've had to make some assessments of myself and how the Juggernaut is inside of me, and we are two different people. You bring one guy in there that's a little too much of one side of me, and that's not where I find success. I had to dissect some things and make some adjustments," Ellenberger told FOX Sports.
The cryptic sort of half-speak from Ellenberger about the Gastelum fight leads into a more interesting conversation about the tactics he's employed since the loss and how he plans to adjust going into his next fight this weekend at UFC 184 against Josh Koscheck.
Ellenberger believes his biggest problem lately has been his inability to pull the trigger, so to speak, so he called on some friends from the military ranks to help him understand the disconnect between normal, human emotion and getting a job done where people are inevitably going to get hurt. Ellenberger needed to know how soldiers with wives and kids and regular, everyday lives got ready to go into a combat situation where killing was part of the business.
"I've been working with some new people, not from a training standpoint; more from a psychological standpoint. Some of the guys specifically who are getting mission-ready for our Special Forces, recon, that sort of thing, and it's a very dark place. Some of the things I've been doing and living in, it's a very dark place," Ellenberger said.
"No one cares about Jake Ellenberger the fighter; it's the Juggernaut, and I've got to pull that dark side out of me -- the guy that doesn't care about anything and has no problem killing somebody. I've definitely looked at it more as a combat situation. It changes your perspective completely."
Ellenberger talked to soldiers who have not only gone to war but have ended up in serious combat situations, tasked with a mission. He found they just have a different mindset, and he desperately wanted to tap into that.
"You look at guys who are getting mission-specific duty, who are getting ready to kill people, and you've got to be ready to have that state of mind. Fighting is the same way," Ellenberger said. "I've got to separate me from one that's OK killing somebody. People focus too much on, 'I need to train this skill to win this fight,' and it's like, you can sharpen a skill all you want, but when you get hit with that panic switch and you can't breathe and you can't think, it's a completely different world.
"It really is a scary potential we all have. I've been put in a few times to a very dark place, and that's what's going to bring a different side of me. It's a completely different world."
Immediately after hearing Ellenberger speak, the easiest assumption would be that he's undergoing some kind of sports psychology to help him perform better in the Octagon.
In actuality, Ellenberger says it goes so much further than speaking to a therapist about his problems because he believes that's all a lot of talk and no action.
"That's really the biggest difference now versus any of the fights I've done before. I've done the psychology stuff before, and it's just talk, that's not really any kind of action," Ellenberger said. "It's been a different world. What I've been working on more is less talk, more action.
"I feel like I've been put in a lot of situations and places in what you would think is your worst-case scenario. I've definitely made a lot of adjustments. I didn't have any other choice."
Ellenberger isn't going to make any predictions for his fight with Koscheck, but from the sound of things, he's not looking to shake hands and have a fun contest with another UFC welterweight. He's looking to defeat his opponent with little remorse.
"This guy, he's had his eye busted a few times; there's things that I can really exploit. Being smart, I don't need to learn how to fight again, but I think we've really put the picture-perfect tactics in place above anything else," Ellenberger said. "More than anything, it's an opportunity to show that other side, that dark side of me."
