Jake Shields feels like he’s finally where he belongs.
Earlier this week, the former Strikeforce middleweight champion signed a long-term deal with the Ultimate Fighting Championship. He’ll make his debut against Martin Kampmann at UFC 121 in October, with the winner likely to receive the next welterweight title shot after Georges St-Pierre and Josh Koscheck’s fight on Dec. 11.
Shields has been a virtual lock to join the UFC for months before the April fight with Dan Henderson that completed his Strikeforce contract. Henderson, who signed with Strikeforce after leaving the UFC, was largely expected to defeat Shields in his first bout for the promotion. The lion’s share of promotional materials for the Nashville, Tenn., event centered on Henderson, conveniently ignoring the champion and the 13-fight winning streak he’d accumulated since 2005.
Shields understood why Henderson was the focal point of the show, but it didn’t matter in the long run. His decision was already made.
His choice was made obvious when he appeared arm in arm with a beaming Dana White on the undercard of the Jose Aldo vs. Urijah Faber pay-per-view earlier this year. Shields’ contract, purchased by Strikeforce during the EliteXC sale, didn’t have the usual “champion’s clause” that would effectively tie Shields to the company as long as he held the belt. And when Strikeforce declined to participate in a period where it could meet any offer made by the UFC, it only cemented the inevitable: Shields was UFC-bound.
“I’ve pretty much been everywhere and held the title everywhere except the UFC, and there’s nothing like the UFC,” Shields said . “When I first started fighting, it was always where I wanted to be, and for whatever reason it kept eluding me. I think I’ve done everything in my career that I could do without being in the UFC, and now it’s my time to go in there and make a run in the UFC, and I couldn’t be more excited.”
Shields has won plenty of accolades since beginning his pro career in 1999, but he’s never been the one thing he’s always wanted to be — a UFC champion. He’ll get his chance. If St-Pierre and Koscheck weren’t already tied into a season-ending "Ultimate Fighter" coaches fight, there’s a good chance Shields would get an immediate bout with St-Pierre. Instead, he’ll face the dangerous Kampmann, a well-rounded striker with enough gusto in his ground game to give Shields trouble.
A victory puts him within shouting distance of a UFC championship. A loss? A loss will give ammunition to those who say Shields wasn’t good enough to cut it in the big leagues, that he made his reputation by fighting subpar talent.
It’s a chance to answer the critics and vault himself into the limelight. At this point, that’s all he’s asking for.
For Strikeforce, it’s a chance to start anew in the middleweight division. Shields’ ground game was effective, but wasn’t the kind of ratings draw the company needed to be effective on network TV, and Strikeforce officials felt the asking price was too much to justify the end result.
“I always felt good about Jake. We’ve always had a good relationship with Jake, and we still do,” said Strikeforce CEO Scott Coker. “We took it as far as we could. We had a conversation about numbers, and we were just way off, so we made a business decision and walked away.”
Losing an active champion to the competition is never a good thing, but if there’s a silver lining for Strikeforce, it’s that they have a crop of young new middleweights itching to take Shields’ place in the division. Tim Kennedy and Ronaldo “Jacare” Souza will meet in Houston on Aug. 21 to determine the new champion, and a middleweight tournament will materialize later this year to determine a new No. 1 contender. Throw in a few grudge matches such as the one brewing between Jason “Mayhem” Miller and Nick Diaz, and you’ve got a division well prepared to take the Shields loss in stride.
Shields, meanwhile, is beginning the process of carving off much of the bulk he gained over the past two years. He’d planned on competing at middleweight in the UFC, but Dana White and others strongly encouraged him to drop back to his natural weight class. He’ll comply for now, but still has a desire to become a two-division threat at some point.
“I’ve got to see how things play out, but ideally, I’d love to fight at both weights,” he said. “Guys like BJ Penn and Anderson Silva have made an example of it, and they’ve both been pretty successful, and I think it’s great. I look for the fight more than the weight, but if I had to pick one weight, ’70 is probably my best weight, but I feel like I can fight at ’85 as well.”
For now, Shields will stick with 170 pounds. Kampmann poses a real threat, but Shields believes he has the tools to go just as far in the UFC as he did outside it.
“I don’t think I’ve hit my peak yet,” he said. “I think I keep getting better and better, and the UFC is gonna be the show for me. I plan on coming out more aggressive and working on my standup, and I think I’m gonna go out there, start bringing the pressure and just break everyone.”
