Jake O'Brien

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1 Profile
2 Early Career
3 UFC
4 Mixed martial arts record
5 Gallery
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Profile

"Irish" Jake O'Brien (born September 25, 1984) is an American professional mixed martial artist training out of the Integrated Fighting Academy.

He stands 6 ft. 3 in. (191 cm) tall and fights in the light heavyweight division (205 lbs.).

O'Brien currently competes as a light heavyweight for the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC).

Early Career

Jake O'Brien made his professional mixed martial arts debut for Madtown Throwdown promotion on May 21, 2005. He defeated opponent, Chris Clark in the first round via TKO.

After finishing off 2005 with a TKO over Paul Bowers, O'Brien extended his winning streak to 7 in 2006 with all seven victories coming via first round stoppage.

UFC

Midway through 2006, O'Brien earned a call up to the UFC. He made his UFC debut on August 17 at UFC Fight Night 6 against Frenchman, Kristof Midoux. O'Brien stopped Midoux in the second round with punches to earn his first UFC victory.

In November at UFC 65, O'Brien faced Josh Shockman on the show's undercard. In an extremely lacklustre affair, O'Brien executed several takedowns only to be wrapped up in Shockman's attemps at rubber guard. This was rinsed and repeated for three rounds until O'Brien was awarded the unanimous decision victory.

At UFC Fight Night 8, O'Brien had the toughest test of his career when he faced PRIDE veteran and UFC debutant, Heath Herring on the main card. O'Brien exploited Herring's poor takedown defense and kept things relatively quiet on the mat for the majority of three rounds. Herring came close to knocking O'Brien out at one stage but ultimately the match ended up as a unanimous decision for O'Brien moving his record to a flawless 10-0.

After the bout O'Brien was diagnosed with a serious neck injury and was out of action for over a year. He eventually made his return to UFC competition on the undercard of UFC 82. He faced former UFC heavyweight champion, Andrei Arlovski and managed to take the first round with a double leg takedown and little no work inside Arlovski's inactive guard. The second round was looking to be a carbon copy of the first until the bout returned to the feet and Arlovski scored a takedown of his own and quickly finished the fight with punches from mount to give O'Brien his first career defeat.

Following the bout O'Brien was reportedly released from his UFC contract. A few groups labelled the UFC's decision as a hasty one. However, when the UFC set up UFC Fight Night 14 in order to counter Affliction's inaugural MMA event, Affliction: Banned on July 19, 2007, O'Brien was recalled to face heavyweight prospect, Cain Velasquez on the main card. Velasquez's superior tool set dominated the bout as he quickly got O'Brien to the mat and moved to side control. From there he battered O'Brien with punches while controlling his arms with his legs, eventually securing the TKO stoppage at 2:02 of round 1.

At UFC 94, O'Brien decided to drop down a weight class to the light heavyweight division. He faced Christian Wellisch, who was also dropping to light heavyweight for the first time, on the show's undercard. A rather mundane bout that featured a lot of inactive O'Brien top control went to a decision and came as a split decision win for O'Brien.

O'Brien will return to competition at UFC 100 when he faces rising light heavyweight contender, Jon Jones.