Eddie Wineland shows new wrinkle in UFC on FOX 10 TKO of Jabouin

CHICAGO – After disappointment in a title fight this past September, former WEC bantamweight champion Eddie Wineland had a statement on his mind for his bounce-back fight.

Mission accomplished, he said.

Wineland (21-9-1 MMA, 3-3 UFC) pounded out Yves Jabouin (19-9 MMA, 4-3 UFC) in the second round of their fight at UFC on FOX 10 on Saturday at Chicago’s United Center, just an hour from Wineland’s home in Northwest Indiana.

In September, Wineland put together a solid first round against bantamweight champ Renan Barao in an interim title fight at UFC 165. But in the second, Barao caught him with a spinning kick, dropped a few punches on him on the ground while he covered up, and that was that. Wineland was not a fan of the stoppage, saying he was far from knocked out and just trying to get his bearings and figure out his next move on defense when Barao was pulled off of him.

But Wineland told MMAjunkie his plan against Jabouin was to officially put the Barao fight behind him – and show future opponents there’s more to him than just a boxing game.

“The title fight is water under the bridge at this point,” Wineland said. “I just keep paddling the boat, and that’s exactly what this fight was – get in the guy’s face, keep pressing forward, make it my fight. I wanted the fight to end on the ground. I wanted to show people that I do possess a ground game, I do possess ground-and-pound, I can control my opponents on the ground. It wasn’t a perfect fight, but I was happy with the outcome.”

Wineland walked through a Jabouin head kick and landed a right hand that put him on the canvas. From there, Wineland took his time and worked a combination of ground-and-pound and a brief submission attempt before adjusting and continuing to rain down punches to get the stoppage late in the second.

Jabouin had a successfully first round against Wineland, continually threatening with high kicks. All three judges scored the first for Jabouin, and immediately after the fight, Wineland and two of his three cornermen told MMAjunkie backstage that they believed Jabouin had won the first, but that “It doesn’t matter now.”

Wineland said rather than knocking Jabouin down and letting him get back up to knock him down again, it was time to show the new wrinkle in his game by moving in for the kill with the ground-and-pound.

“In the past, it’s been no secret that I like to knock people down. I knock them down and stand and let them get back up and knock them down again,” he said. “For anybody who’s trained with me in the gym, they know my top game is very, very heavy. I like to time my shots and I don’t want to just throw wildly. I make my shots count, I make sure they’re hard, and I make sure they’re going to land. And I throw everything with a meaning. I try not to give any space and make every shot count.”

The big shot that counted was the right hand against Jabouin, and then dozens more with the Montreal-based Haitian covering up.

Wineland has been one of the bantamweight division’s top second-tier fighters the past four years. He closed out his run in the WEC by going 4-0 with a pair of “Knockout of the Night” bonuses. In the UFC, he has the TKO of Jabouin and became the first fighter to knock out Scott Jorgensen, winning “Fight of the Night” honors in the process. His three decision wins over a 7-3 stretch have had 30-27 scores from eight of nine judges.

But it’s that top tier he has struggled with. His losses in the UFC are to Barao, Urijah Faber and Joseph Benavidez. Now he’ll hope that he’s back on track to get another crack and Barao or Faber, who meet this Saturday for the bantamweight title at UFC 169.

Wineland knows, though, that he’ll need a highly ranked opponent to make another statement.

“I guess that depends on my next opponent,” he said. “It could be two fights, it could be one fight, it could be four fights. It all depends on who they put in front of me next.”

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