Jake Shields to UFC

[A.E]

Shields talks UFC, Strikeforce

For Jake Shields, Monday was a lifetime of work paying off, and a dream come true.

The former EliteXC welterweight champion and Strikeforce middleweight champion finally put pen to paper and inked his official deal with the UFC. He will debut in the Octagon at 170 pounds against Martin Kampmann at UFC 121 in October.

The Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu black belt has long talked about fighting the best in the world, and in his mind the list starts and stops with the UFC. In his last fight for Strikeforce, Shields took a dominant decision over Dan Henderson before becoming a free agent, and he says his mind was made up right away where he was going.

“No, I really didn’t have an intention of going back to Strikeforce,” Shields told MMAWeekly Radio on Monday. “It’s nothing against them. I don’t think they’re a bad show. I just think the UFC, it’s the prime show right now; everyone knows UFC is the spot to be. It doesn’t mean Strikeforce is bad; I think it’s good they’re out there.

“Being the Strikeforce champ’s cool and all, but I really had the dream of being the UFC champ.”

Becoming the UFC champion has long been a goal of Shields, and now that he’s signed to compete in the Octagon the dream could possibly become a reality.

“I want to go out there and try to make it happen,” he said about a title shot.

Shields’ exodus leaves the Strikeforce middleweight division with a vacant title, although they will crown a new champion in August. Beating Dan Henderson in April threw a major monkey wrench into the plans that Strikeforce had for its top free agent signing, and Shields knows it wasn’t what they had envisioned.

“I don’t think they were very happy about that,” he said about his win over Henderson. “I was actually planning on dropping back to 170 to finish my last fight on my contract, and they knew it was my last fight, so they were really pushy about me staying up (at 185), and I knew their motives of course. They thought Henderson would beat me, but I was like ‘alright if you want to do that.’ So then I think after I beat him they seemed pretty upset.”

The honeymoon for Strikeforce and Shields was definitely over after their middleweight champion showed up at one of their events and was told they didn’t have a place for him.

“I showed up for one of the Strikeforce fights to go watch when I was still the champ, before they released me, and they didn’t have me any tickets. So that made it pretty clear,” he said with a laugh.

Love it! I'm no fan of Jake Shields (boring fighter) but his signing definitely shakes up the UFC Middleweight division...a division in MUCH need of a shake-up. Shields is doing a lot of Strikeforce bashing right now but his success in the UFC can do numbers to further legitimize Scott Coker's promotion.

 

[jdelarosa]

I would honestly like to see Jake Shields vs Vitor Belfort fight, although the clash stylistically, it could be a good fight

 

[jarrod2323]

I TOTALLY agree with AE on this.. this should finally put some fun back in the Middleweights

 

[snipezo]

GSP was praising this guy saying he's amazing. Can't wait to see him fight.

 

[Swag_Surfin]

Sheilds is good, a bit boring, but good. Its a good move for Dana White.