UFC 129 Fight Card: Jake Shields and the 10 Most One-Dimensional UFC Fighters

There are many one-dimensional fighters throughout MMA and the UFC.

These fighters are so good at the one dimension they excel in, they have reached the pinnacle of the sport by using it.

Some are jiu-jitsu aces, some are fantastic wrestlers and some have deadly striking.

They can all end the fight using their strength, but the downside of that is they can be finished by their weakness.

Here are 10 of the most one-dimensional fighters currently fighting in the UFC.

Jon Fitch

Jon Fitch (23-3-1 [1 NC]) is the No. 2 welterweight in the world.

Fitch is the former wrestling captain of Purdue University, and you can figure that is his one dimension.

Fitch is a wrestler and not much more. Fitch hasn't finished a fight in four years, and in that time, he has won seven by decision.

If he wants another shot at GSP, he's going to have to finish someone and prove to Dana White that he can.

Demian Maia

Demian Maia (14-2) is a former challenger to Anderson Silva's middleweight belt.

Maia is an outstanding jiu-jitsu practitioner. He is arguably one of the top 10 jiu-jitsu practitioners in the world.

Maia has submitted eight of his opponents, but none in his past five fights. It's almost as though people are figuring out his strength and not playing into it.

Dan Hardy

Dan Hardy (23-9 [1 NC]) is a former challenger to Georges St-Pierre's welterweight belt.

Dan Hardy is a striker. Hardy has won 11 by (T)KO and four by submission. But of those four, two were to strikes, one was to injury and one was a legitimate submission.

So Hardy has stopped 13 of his opponents with strikes. That's impressive.

In his last fight, he was taken down and controlled on the ground for probably about 12 minutes by Anthony Johnson.

In his fight against Georges St-Pierre, the same thing happened, only for about 10 minutes longer.

Hardy can strike, and that seems to be about it.

Cody McKenzie

Cody McKenzie (12-1) was a participant on season 11 of The Ultimate Fighter. 

McKenzie is one-dimensional, not in a style, but in a single move.

Many will remember that McKenzie was a wicked guillotine, called the McKenzitine.

McKenzie won 10 straight fights with guillotine chokes, not counting his time on The Ultimate Fighter.

In his last fight, Yves Edwards avoided the guillotine and ended up putting McKenzie to sleep with a rear-naked choke.

Shane Carwin

I think we can all guess what Shane Carwin (12-1) is good at.

Think back to UFC 116, where he abused Lesnar with punches for five minutes.

He absolutely destroyed the champ but couldn't get the fight stopped.

In the second round, he was gassed, easily taken down and forced to submit to one of the most slowly set up arm-triangle chokes I have ever seen.

A lot of that could have been him gassed out, but he just looked like he had no idea what to do off his back.

George Sotiropoulos

George Sotiropoulos (14-3) is a lightweight figher.

In his last fight, Sotiropoulos fought Dennis Siver. In a huge upset, Siver defeated Sotiropoulos by unanimous decision.

The deciding factor in the fight was Sotiropoulos' inability to get the fight to the ground. He is a fantastic jiu-jitsu fighter but simply could not bring Siver down no matter how hard he tried.

So he couldn't take Siver down, therefore couldn't use his jiu-jitsu to an advantage and was forced to fight where he wasn't comfortable.

Chael Sonnen

Chael Sonnen (25-11-1) is a former challenger to Anderson Silva's middleweight belt.

Sonnen is the best wrestler in the UFC. So that's obviously his one dimension.

In his last fight, he took down and controlled Anderson Silva for about 22 minutes, before getting caught in a triangle choke for the fourth time in his career.

Sonnen is a wrestler, but he does not train jiu-jitsu and does not have all that impressive striking, but if he had trained submission defense even just a little bit, he may have become the UFC Middleweight Champion.

He would have soon after lost the belt because of the whole steroid thing, but nonetheless, would have won the title.

Rousimar Palhares

Rousimar Palhares (12-3) is another jiu-jitsu ace in middleweight division.

Palhares is not just one-dimensional in his jiu-jitsu, he is one-dimensional within that. He is outstanding at leg locks, as he has won six fights with leg locks, and when he couldn't get Nate Marquardt with one, he claimed he was greased.

It was a stupid mental lapse, but that also shows how confident he is in his leg locks.

Palhares last beat Dave Branch with a kneebar, and he's going to have to climb back up the middleweight rankings after letting Nate Marquardt TKO him while he complained.

Thiago Alves

Thiago Alves (18-7) is a former challenger to Georges St-Pierre's welterweight belt.

Alves is a deadly muay-thai striker and has won 11 fights via (T)KO.

In his last fight, at UFC 124, he outstruck John Howard for three rounds and even knocked him down with a punch in the third en route to a unanimous decision.

Alves has some outstanding finishes on his resume, look for him to add another at UFC 130, when he takes on Rick Story.

Jake Shields

Jake Shields (26-4-1) is the former Strikeforce Middleweight Champion and a current UFC welterweight.

Shields is a Cesar Gracie Jiu-Jitsu black belt, and his jiu-jitsu his one-dimensional.

Shields has won 11 of his fights via submission and only three by TKO.

I like to tell people that Shields has "pillows" for hands.

There are loads of questions going into his fight against Georges St-Pierre.

Will he be able to get him down?

If he can, will he be able to submit him?

If he can't get him down, will GSP finally get a finish?

All these questions will be answered tonight when these two welterweights do battle in Toronto, with the UFC Welterweight Title on the line.

UFC 129 St-Pierre vs. Shields: Fight Card, News, Predictions, Results, and More!