Jesse Taylor

From CageWiki

1 Profile
2 Early Career
3 The Ultimate Fighter and UFC
4 Post-UFC Career
5 Mixed martial arts record
6 Gallery
7 External links

Profile

Jesse "JT Money" Taylor (born January 2, 1983) is an American professional mixed martial artist and former castmember on The Ultimate Fighter: Team Rampage vs. Team Forrest.

He stands 6 ft. 1 in. (186 cm) tall and fights in the welterweight (170 lbs.) and middleweight (185 lbs.) divisions.

Taylor is a UFC veteran and currently competes as a middleweight for the DREAM promotion.

Early Career

Jesse Taylor made his professional mixed martial arts debut on August 4, 2006 for the King of the Cage promotion. He defeated his opponent, Robert Sarkozi, via decision after two rounds to notch his first win.

After two second round stoppage victories, Taylor succumbed to his first professional defeat in April, 2007 as he was submitted by TUF 3's Jesse Forbes with an armbar in 1:21 of round 1.

Taylor got back on track with a TKO of Jorge Ortiz but was defeated again in his next bout as he was submitted with a triangle choke by Kenny Ento in just 37 seconds.

Taylor closed out 2007 with two dominating victories to push his record to 6-2.

The Ultimate Fighter and UFC

In 2008, Taylor was selected as one of 32 middleweight competitors for The Ultimate Fighter 7. He earned a spot in the TUF house with a rear naked choke submission of Nick Rossborough.

Picked sixth by coach Forrest Griffin, Taylor was chosen first by Griffin to fight as he faced Mike Dolce. Taylor earned a spot in the quarter-finals as he used his superior wrestling to smother Dolce before finally submitting him in the second round with a rear naked choke.

In the quarters, Taylor faced IFL veteran, Dante Rivera and used his dominating top game again as he nullified Rivera's offense en route to a lacklustre decision win.

Taylor faced jiu-jitsu ace, Tim Credeur in the semi-finals and had to fight through some close submission attempts before dishing out a substantial amount of damage to take the fight on all three judge's scorecards.

Taylor's spot in the final was taken away from him however, as a drunken incident in Las Vegas which resulted in some scared female patrons and some confused and intimidated security guards forced Dana White to remove him from the competition.

Fairly bitter about the removal, Taylor was called back to the UFC on short notice for UFC Fight Night 14 against his replacement in the final, CB Dollaway. Taylor made UFC history as he was the first person to be submitted by a Peruvian Necktie in - at the very least - UFC history.

Following the defeat, Taylor was released by the UFC.

Post-UFC Career

Just under three months after his UFC departure, Taylor took a fight at a catchweight against tough but troubled UFC veteran, Drew Fickett at a Total Combat event. Taylor scored the most impressive win of his career as he flattened Fickett in just 1:42 of round 1.

To open 2009, Taylor experimented with fights at both welterweight and middleweight as he racked up four straight victories - including three by rear naked choke submission.

In July it was announced that Taylor would be competing on DREAM 10 against Korean judoka, Dong Sik Yoon in a middleweight bout.