Rate it!

0 votes

Like any fighter in his position, Jake Shields' goal is to be number one in his weight class.

But his biggest obstacle at this point isn't an opponent standing in his way, as much as the unique politics of the mixed martial arts industry.

Shields is the current Elite XC welterweight champion, generally ranked between number three and number five in the world in his weight class in various pools.

Those numbers are more a shot in the dark than anything you can pinpoint accurately. And if he beats his next opponent, England's Paul Daley, in the lone title match on the October 4 at Sunrise, Florida., it won't make where he stands any more clear.

Shields, who may be the best submission specialist of all the former college wrestlers in the game, hasn't lost in nearly four years. His 21-4-1 record includes five straight first-round wins, four by submission. He's got wins over current WEC champion Carlos Condit and top-ten middleweight Yushin Okami.

But with three matches left on his contract with Elite XC, the fights that would answer the question of where he should be ranked, against people like Josh Koscheck, Jon Fitch, Thiago Alves and the consensus number one, and the fighter he most wants to go against, Georges St. Pierre, simply can't happen, because all of them fight in the rival UFC.

Ironically, some spirited scrimmaging with Koscheck and Fitch has happened.

The San Francisco-based Shields, who lives and trains with top lightweight Gilbert Melendez, sometimes makes the trek to San Jose and train with two of UFC's top welterweights. Koscheck, for his part, called Shields the most underrated fighter in the world.

Shields said that training against the best is very different than fighting, but he believes he can beat them.

"When you beat everyone in the first round, you get to feeling invincible," said Shields.

"I go in with the feeling I can beat anyone. I do a lot of striking. I'd like to knock out Daley to show the world my stand-up, but my strength is on the ground."

Shields couldn't have looked more impressive in his last fight, where he beat Nick Thompson in just 1:03 in California in July, to become the first Elite XC welterweight champion.

Shields transitioned from a takedown to a unique form of a guillotine in the blink of an eye and it was over.

"The difference between me and a lot of wrestlers, is they train Brazilian jiu-jitsu to learn to counter it," said Shields, 29, who wrestled at Cuesta Junior College in San Luis Obispo, where he met Chuck Liddell and got his start in the sport.

"Once I started at it, I really enjoyed it and wanted to get better at it. I still have a lot to learn even though I'm a black belt. But I'm always doing new things and learning new moves."

His fight career started when he was taking a year off school, but still living in San Luis Obispo, and through a friend, met Liddell.

They trained some wrestling for a few days and less than two weeks later, was at a casino show backstage.

Word got around there was a sudden opening on the card for a 185-pounder.

Shields weighed 180 at the time, took the fight, won, and suddenly he was an MMA fighter.

He already had nine fights on small shows when he went to San Francisco State as a 174-pound college wrestler in 2001.

By this point, he'd already been welterweight champion for the small Gladiator Challenge promotion. Because the wrestling team had no heavyweight, he was asked to move up a few times.

Shields would weigh in with ankle weights, forearm weights and with several layers of clothing just to get to a minimum, going against people as heavy as 285 pounds.

But wrestling guys so much bigger didn't make the sport a lot of fun. After a spat with the coach, he quit wrestling and at that point dedicated himself to MMA.

A few months after leaving college, Shields was brought to Japan for Shooto's year-end show, the company's biggest of the year, to face Hayato Sakurai, the Shooto world champion.

From the Japanese standpoint, they probably liked the idea of a guy an American with a small-time MMA title, and Division I college wrestling credentials, to face Japan's top fighter in the weight class.

At the time, Sakurai had 23 fights, and his only losses were to Matt Hughes, in a UFC title match, and to a then 167-pound Anderson Silva.

Shields scored the upset by decision, and for the next two years became a regular on the Japanese circuit, including going to a draw with Kazuo Misaki, currently one of the top ranked middleweights in the world.

After relocating to Northern California for college, he learned about the Cesar Gracie Academy, and formed a bond with Melendez and Nick and Nate Diaz, with the four being known as some of the best conditioned fighters in the game.

"It's great," he said about being in a tight-knit group. "All you do is train. It's easier to stay motivated when you are looking at the same goal. It would be harder if I was around people who wanted to go out and drink and chase girls. We do that a little after the fights."

He also has another key responsibility, a young daughter who he picks up from school and takes care of several afternoons and evenings per week.

Shields was in negotiations to face Matt Lindland, one of the top middleweights, for the proposed October 11 Affliction show that ended up being cancelled.

He has an open contract, so can fight outside of Elite XC, but Elite XC has first dibs on his services, and wanted him so they could have a title match on this show.

But he is still open to the idea of facing Lindland next year on an Affliction show, noted his father and manager, Jack Shields. He's also talked of challenging Robbie Lawler for Elite XC's middleweight title.

With the recent Affliction/Elite XC alliance that has resulted in Affliction's Andre Arlovski and Roy Nelson fighting on American national television, politically the door may be open wider to the potential of a Lindland fight next year.

If Shields could win, moving up a weight class, from a world reputation standpoint, it would be the biggest of his career.

But the question is whether Elite XC would be open to allowing one of its world champions to be put in a position moving up a weight class against a top-ranked fighter from another group.

His next foe, Daley, an explosive striker, is the current Cage Rage welterweight champion, the leading UK based promotion.

Daley and Shields talked about making the match title vs. title, but Jeremy Lappen explained that the Elite XC title is above the Cage Rage belt and that would be the only one at stake in a five-round fight that neither fighter expected would go the distance.

"Either I'm going to submit him or he's going to knock me out," said Shields. "I think I'm going to submit him, but it's not going five rounds.

"If it was my choice, there are opponents I would pick first," he said.

"But he's probably the best opponent they could get right now. He's no slouch. I'd be retarded to look past him."

This is your classic striker vs. grappler fight. Daley, 16-8-2, on paper appears to be tailor made for Shields in that he'd had trouble with ground specialists during his career.

His six-fight win streak, all wins by striking, includes a notable win knockout over Duane "Bang" Ludwig on June 22, 2007, in San Jose.

"I've been training for this fight forever," said Daley. "My whole career, I've been fighting guys who want to take me down."

Dave Meltzer, Yahoo! Sports / Eurosport