UFC 140 Fight Card: Breaking Down Brian Ebersole vs. Claude Patrick

Brian “Bad Boy” Ebersole vs. Claude “The Prince” Patrick could be the sleeper hit of the UFC 140 card.  

Both men are skilled in each area of the sport, yet they are not mirrors.  Both men know how to strike, but go about it differently.  

Both men know how to grapple, but have different styles.  Both men have the ability to take opponents down. 

The winner may come down to who finds and exploits an opening. 

All statistics sourced from FightMetric.com and Sherdog.com.

Physicality

Neither man is much taller than the other; neither is particularly old.  Patrick has a two-inch reach advantage; Ebersole has a two-inch height advantage.

Ebersole is a southpaw; Patrick fights orthodox.

Grappling

Both Ebersole and Patrick will be keen to fight on the mat.  Who will dictate the terms?

Ebersole has succeeded in seven of his last 11 takedown attempts.  Of those, the fighter with the highest Fight Metric takedown accuracy score is Dennis Hallman, with 30 percent.

Patrick is similarly difficult to take down, having only been brought to the canvas once in the last seven attempts.  Of those, Dan Roberts had the highest takedown accuracy score.

Patrick has succeeded in eight of his last 12 takedown attempts.  

Both men know how to grapple.  Patrick is a jiu jitsu brown belt; Ebersole is an Eastern Illinois University wrestler.  (Eastern Illinois cancelled their wrestling program in 2007.  You can protest here.)

Once on the mat, Ebersole will look to finish with some ground-and-pound.

Both men know submissions. Though Ebersole has demonstrated a wider variety of techniques, Patrick has a guillotine that has finished nine men, just waiting for the wrestler who carelessly leaves his neck out.

Striking

Ebersole has been a higher-volume striker than Patrick, having thrown 342 punches over his last three fights to Patrick’s 180. 

Ebersole has been the more accurate striker, landing 278 over his last three fights, or 81 percent, to Patrick’s 138 and 77 percent.

Patrick finishes with punches; Ebersole finishes predominantly with punches.  However, Ebersole’s last victory was due to elbows from guard.

Experience

It takes a long time to scroll through Brian Ebersole’s Sherdog record.  At 31, he has had more professional fights than Randy Couture—twice as many, in fact.  

While he has not fought any legends, there is no substitute for 64 fights and no losses in three years.

Patrick, meanwhile, has a 15-1 record littered with nine first-round finishes.

Expectations

Ebersole will have some success defending Patrick’s clinches and takedowns, losing some of those battles too.

There will be tense moments, when Ebersole shoots and Patrick locks up that guillotine.  

Patrick will land hard shots, but Ebersole will land more shots.