Jay Hieron should be your favorite fighter. We don’t know if Jay walked underneath a ladder while breaking a mirror to deserve such strange and horrible luck throughout his impressive fighting career, but Jay has come within inches of being a household name multiple times.
The year was 2004 and the event was UFC 48. Jay Hieron in his UFC debut would fall to an equally inexperienced GSP in 108 seconds. This would be GSP’s second UFC win in a row, earning him a title shot at then champion Matt Hughes. Who knows what path would be taken had Hieron not been cut by the UFC after that loss. Hieron puts 2 wins together then is welcomed back to the UFC in a match so horrificly gory the UFC won’t even replay the match. Hieron would fall to 0-2 under the Zuffa banner and be unceremoniously cut again. Then the IFL came calling.
Hieron would have a solid run in the IFL, going 7-2 and being crowned their welterweight champion…Then they shut the doors on the promotion. Another valley for Jay Hieron after an all too brief peak. After the IFL shut down, Jay Hieron would make his way to Affliction in impressive fashion, knocking out Jason High in just over a minute. Then Affliction would cease to be.
Without a home once again, Jay Hieron would make his way to Strikeforce, where he would be promised the world and delivered the equivalent to leftovers from the fridge. Title shots and TV time would be in Hieron’s Strikeforce future, until they inexplicably weren’t. Jay Hieron would pull up his proverbial bootstraps and make his way to Bellator.
In Bellator, Hieron would take part in the season 4 welterweight tournament, defeating Brent Weedman and Rick Hawn via controversial decisions before he himself would come within a hair of taking home the Bellator belt from around Ben Askren’s waist. Hieron would hit the road again.
Now Hieron was back in the UFC, ready to fight at UFC 151 under the bright lights of the largest MMA promotion in the world…Until 151 was pulled out from under him like the IFL, Affliction and so many opportunities before. Jake Ellenberger awaits Jay Hieron for a rematch to their 2006 IFL fight in which Hieron defeated Ellenberger, and in preparation for this fight, LayzieTheSavage and Daniel Goland took a deep, behind-the-scenes look at a Jay Hieron, who has come so close to the top, so many times.
