On Monday July 19, 2010 Jake Shields, the former middleweight champion of StrikeForce, signed with the UFC. Many MMA websites and magazines have him ranked as the number 3 middleweight in the world. The UFC brass, and fans of the UFC should be very excited about such a big acquisition for the organization. Shields is also coming off the biggest win of his career, a title defense against the legend Dan Henderson. So for the UFC, this addition is huge for their reputation of having the best fighters in the world.
Jake Shields should be fighting at welterweight, as I had mentioned on MMABadAss. My feelings were that if Jake Shields wanted to be successful in the UFC he should move back to welterweight. I feel Jake Shields moved up to middleweight in StrikeForce because there was a lack of competition in the welterweight division, as well as making room for Nick Diaz. So I was glad to hear that Shields signed with the UFC to fight Martin Kampmann in the welterweight division.
My question is though, what impact will Jake Shields actually have on the welterweight division? I don’t think it should be assumed that he will breeze through Kampmann on his way to title shot. Even if he does get by “The Hitman” and whoever else the UFC throws at him, what can really do to GSP? GSP has already shown us he can out wrestle the likes of Josh Koscheck, Matt Hughes, and Jon Fitch. Jake Shields has a questionable stand up game and may not be able to use his strength in wrestling to take the fight where he wants to against GSP. So is this as big of an acquisition as it appears? That’s assuming he can even earn his way to the belt, because the UFC’s welterweight division is stacked. It seems as though Shields could fall into the same category as Jon Fitch, Thiago Alves, and Josh Koscheck, they are all just fighting for the title of “The Best of the Rest” in the UFC’s welterweight division.
Right now I think the biggest threat to GSP is a man he has already defeated in Josh Koscheck, so not much of a threat at all. Fitch and Shields don’t have much stand up, and Alves doesn’t have much of a ground game, so Koscheck is the biggest threat with his wrestling pedigree, and KO power. Will Jake Shields be able to run the gauntlet of the UFC’s 170 lbs division? Can he out wrestle Fitch, dodge Thiago’s strikes, or just survive against Koscheck? If so, what can he do against GSP…that we haven’t seen fail already?
Written by Keith Talarico of http://mmabadass.com. You can also follow Keith on Twitter, @mmabadassblog
4 Comments for How Will Jake Shields Impact The UFC?
Bo Knows Best | July 20, 2010 at 6:21 PM
The Expo Assassin | July 21, 2010 at 10:02 AM
I think he’ll do relatively well against kampmann he beat Daley when i thought daley was ganna and should have destroyed him so i guess we will see
Dragon | July 21, 2010 at 12:09 PM
I don’t think his win against Hendo was nearly as impressive as it was that Hendo was so very unimpressive. Shields didn’t impress me at all. Maybe I forgot too much of the fight, but looking back I was saying more, “How bad was Dan?” not “How good was Shields?” He will have little impact at middleweight and welterweight. Still not a Shields believer
Pmonkey | July 22, 2010 at 2:33 AM
Yeah I’m not to sure about jake, I think he’ll get 6 fights in the ufc, win 3 and lose 3.
I’m not sure if Shields will be able to make an immediate impact and Kampmann is a tough first opponent. However, he is coming off of an impressive win in which he should some serious chin action and a massive heart. I feel that Jake Shields has a chip on his shoulder rolling into the UFC, should be interesting. I’m excited for UFC 121.