Jake Shields: I Wasn’t Pressured by UFC to Fight at Welterweight
Jake Shields recently told MMA Weekly that the UFC didn’t pressure him to drop from middleweight, where he held the Strikeforce title, to his natural weight class of 170-pounds for his UFC debut against Martin Kampmann at “UFC 121: Lesnar vs. Velasquez” on October 23 in Anaheim, California:
“I was pretty undecided the whole time. I just wanted big fights, and I know GSP is tied up with the Koscheck fight, so I was thinking maybe going to 85 since my weight’s already up.
They called and asked if I wanted (Martin Kampmann) at 70 and I said sure. They didn’t give me any pressure; they gave me the option. Some people were saying I was forced to go down, which certainly wasn’t the case. They said I could fight at either weight, but they offered me a fight at 70, and I was like I might as well jump and take it.”
Obviously if I’m close to getting a title shot it’s a huge factor. I’m not really sure if this is going to be a number one contender’s fight or not, it hasn’t been mentioned to me, but there’s a good chance if I go out there and look really good doing it, it’s definitely a possibility.”
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well your about to fight someone who actually did ok at185. think this will be for a belt shot and i think this fight could go either way. as much as the ufc and shields talked before signing. i think shields was told to fight at ww[not forced but told] and iif they didnt already have vitor waiting things could of been different. i also think that he has been told that unless this fight totally sucks that he will get the shot. imo this fight cant be boring. why??? have you ever seen a martin k. fight that sucked win or lose????
In some ways the rumor that the UFC somehow arm-twisted Jake Shields into fighting at 170 doesn’t even make sense.
The 185 weightclass has essentially been cleaned out by Anderson Silva [Sonnen fight pending], so it seems to me that Dana White will need as many new 185 faces as he can sign to re-stock and reload the Octagon with potential 185 title challengers.
If, and thats a huge IF, but if someone within the UFC tried somehow coercing Shields towards fighting in a specific weightclass, wouldn’t the “nudge” be towards 185, where he most recently and publicly defeated Hendo, rather than at 170??
Rather contradicting with Dana, I thought you would say “Trust me! Dana knows best” ;)
I think that Shields will probably do well in either weight class. Although he’s not a killer like Anderson Silva he does have an awesome jiu jitsu game. He looked very good against Henderson. He’ll probably get murdered by GSP if he gets by Kampman. But you never know. That’s what’s so awesome about this sport. Truely anything can happen.
this totally contradicts what you said about a week ago. when you said that there so much new life in the mw div. and so many challengers that spider still has to face and others that he has faced that are getting better and it would be good to see rematches, such as leben. now that kampmann beat paulo, and the fitch- alves fight is going to drop the loser back out of the contenders for at least a little bit. so you have fitch[imo] and the winner of shields-kampmann . to me vitor is next for spider and the next for gsp, well i think dana and the other big wigs would like that to be shields. and i think it will be if he wins!! i think that shields was definately told that if he wants a quick titleshot and also make the owners happy then ww was the best choice for him.
plus dana wants another reason to make fitch wait.
or shields and fitch (i also think fitch beats alves again) for the next #1 contender (after gsp pummels kos of course)
Great first fight for Shields.
I personally believe this will be a no1 contender title match.
Kampmann looking very sharp in his last fight and knows Shields will be tough for him.
I reckon Shields will be looking forward a great deal!
Dear Jake Shield,
compare to GSP’s ground, yours is sluggish and amaturish. It’s not gonna get the bail when you confront GSP.
–TC
what are you talking about GSP and his ground game….he has good defense…but a ground game overall GSP is a good fighter but not a great…Shields is known for his ground game and has a better one than GSP…we all seen and know GSP cannot take one on the chin when mat serra hit him…shields got knocked down by hendos right and still got up and dominated a good fighter like hendo and won the fight and hendo is known in pride for good jiu jitsu defense.GSP likes to run around and he will not risk a stand up or ground game if he knows he might be at risk….Hands down I would have to say since GSP likes to fight all five rounds and win by decesion all the time because he is a boring fighter shields would be the perfect fight because shields will beat on the ground any day…
GSP is a GREAT fighter… he keeps moving all the time… doesnt allow for the opponent to find a hole… if he can batter BJ penn into quiting im sure he can do the same to sheilds
Jake shields pressured…wow really? Look at the size difference between Hendo and Shields then ask the question again. I know Hendo is a 205 fighter but there are other 185 fighters that are as big or bigger then Hendo….like Nate the Great. Its a smart move for Shields to go to 170 bcuz he is the right fit for that class.
Wow, I thought the whole “GSP and his glass chin” bs was over, Are we just couch potatoes here or are we actually MMA’s upper echelon’s knowledge base. I really can’t understand why anyone “Notorious Joe” would think GSP has no chin because Matt Serra caught him a few times and mixed his head up a bit, anyone and I mean anyone who gets hit with that many shots (and he never KO’d him either) and not have to have the fight ended, well except maybe Lesnar but we all know why that happened. At this point fellas, I really think our conversations should be beyond such comments and have more depth. No I’m not trying to be derogatory or pick on any one person but really, GSP’s ground game/game in general, is top notch and I genuinely don’t see a problem anywhere, although I wish he had a little more power in his punches.
Again, it’s JMO
Thanks
i think fitch alves winner gets the the #1 contender but i think they should have the fitch alves winner fight the kampman shields winner fight for the #1 contender since the gsp kos fight is so far off