Jake Matthews 'no longer a rising star' after UFC Fight Night 85 win over Johnny Case

Jake Matthews picked up a big win over Johnny Case at UFC Fight Night 85. It was the kind of gutsy win that shows a fighter’s character and can build their confidence in future fights.

Matthews (10-1 MMA, 4-1 UFC) forced Case (22-5 MMA, 4-1 UFC) to tap to a rear-naked choke at the 4:45 mark of Round 3. The bout took place on the FOX Sports 1-televised main card of the event, which took place March 19 from Brisbane Entertainment Centre in Brisbane, Queensland, Australia.

The victory was the biggest in the career of the 21-year-old “Celtic Kid,” and he told MMAjunkie Radio it was the kind of statement win he needed.

“I absolutely feel extra special after this win,” Matthews said. “It’s a very big win for my career and it was a good statement to show people that I’m no longer a rising star, I’m present here in the division now and I can beat top guys. Those gut check wins – I’ve had two in a row. In Melbourne I came very close to losing and came back, and in this fight I was confident I had the first and third rounds but you can never be sure, so I wanted to get the finish and not let it go to the judges. It’s good to test your resolve in those fights.”

Matthews had to endure big moments from Case in the seesawing matchup, but it was targetted attacks to the body that had a big impact on the way the later stages of the fight played out.

Case buckled from some of Matthews biggest shots in the final frame of the fight, shots that were opened up through his focused body attack.

“(Going to the body) was very important,” Matthews said. “We didn’t work on focusing on the body too much during training camp, it was more that we knew we could stand up for him and that’s something I wanted to showcase in this fight. I’ve been able to strike like that, and even better, that’s not the extent of my striking. I’ve been able to do that in all my UFC fights. I just haven’t been able to pull the trigger, I’ve been hesitant.

“The goal was to strike with him and when the takedown was there, we’d take it and do my signature ground and pound to get the submission. It turns out he’s a good wrestler, which we didn’t know. That was a mistake on our part, not seeing that. He had a really good base and it was hard to get him down and hard to reverse him. So we had to sort of change the gameplan up and my coaches noticed that one of the body kicks hurt him and buckled him, so they said to keep working the body and it would slow him down.”

For more on UFC Fight Night 85, check out the UFC Events section of the site.

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