© Marc Wickert
www.knucklepit.com
January 2, 2007
IFL Silverback Ben Uker is back at full-throttle training in Bettendorf, after briefly celebrating the beginning of 2007.
"I hung out with some old wrestling buddies at Iowa City for New Year's Eve after traveling back from Connecticut this past weekend. We were pretty worn out, so I didn't do a lot. I had three or four drinks, but I was really tired and didn't carry on too much," says Uker.
Ben did get his wish to fight as an alternate at the IFL Final in Connecticut, although he says he received the billing on late notice. "It was after the weigh-ins that they came and told me I was fighting. I wish I'd known a little sooner. That's no excuse: I still train to be in shape. I'm the kind of athlete who likes to know ahead of time. It definitely benefits somebody like me, but so be it. And I was glad I got the fight, so…"
Leading into the match, Jake Ellenberger had a 13-1 record, with his only loss being to Jay Hieron. And Ben admits Jake did enter the bout with an impressive pedigree. "He's a good athlete: I was a lot stronger than he was and a lot better wrestler. All round, I think I'm a better athlete. But I hit an energy dump right at the end of the first round; I felt real heavy in the chest.
"Then coming out in the second round, I just didn't feel I was breathing properly for some reason, and it kinda caught up with me. I'm not sure why, but … He's a great athlete: I'm not taking anything away from him. I'd like to get back in there and fight him again. I think the outcome would be totally different.
"At no point did I feel in any danger or anything of that nature. I was more or less fighting myself more than I was fighting him, which frustrates me a little bit. At the end, I was going to take a shot and I dropped my head. He threw a knee, which hit me in the forehead and put me to the canvas. He threw maybe three or four punches that didn't really hurt me. I didn't think the fight was going to be stopped, but it was."
With their bout being on short notice, obviously the fighters didn't have time to watch tapes on each other.
Ben, did you know much about Jake before the fight?
"I knew enough about him to know he was a good competitor. He actually trained with us for a week or two at a time here in Bettendorf, and I pretty much dominated him in all the practices that we did together. So I felt really good about the fight – about having to compete against him.
"And like I said, at the end of the first round I had trouble breathing, and I don't necessarily think it was due to shape… I don't know what it was, I just felt real heavy in my lung area. Then I started worrying more about that than fighting."
Is there anything you feel you want to work on more after that fight?
"I'd probably say just continue working on my stand-up. And I missed a lot of opportunities on the ground, when I was on top of him, the whole first period. I felt that I should have submitted him then and I didn't. I'd like to watch the tape and maybe see if there was something in the fight where I can pinpoint what went wrong: Just talking to my coaches, they said, 'You looked great, then you were a different fighter; it looked like something was wrong, or you weren't all with it.' So…"
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