After fighting Dan Henderson on the upcoming Strikeforce CBS card, Jake Shields will be a free agent win or lose. He does not have a “champions clause” in his contract that states he can’t leave while he is the middleweight champion. Therefore, he is likely to be taking suitors as soon as the 18th of April.
At the front of that line should be Dana White.
Shields is a great fit for the UFC for many reason. The first of which is that he simply a great fighter. He possesses great BJJ, and holds 10 submission victories. However, that is what we expect from someone who holds a black belt under Cesar Gracie. However, what separates him from someone like teammate Nate Diaz is solid standup. He’s not going to blow anyone away on the feet, but he can use his standup to set up takedowns. He’s not just throwing a pawing jab out there, he is doing damage with strikes.
Shields has won twelve in a row, including a victory over overrated personality/underrated fighter Jason “Mayhem” Miller in his last fight. That fight was at middleweight, which is not Shields natural weight class. However, since they lacked a star at 185 to put on CBS, they went to a bulked up Shields. The result was Miller being too strong for Shields, and Shields being unable to finish the fight.
If he was able to come to the UFC, Shields could move back down the 170 immediately. In that division there are so many interesting fights for him. He could start near the top of the division because of his previous success the same way we saw Vitor Belfort do. That means that fights with Jon Fitch, Thiago Alves, Josh Koscheck, Anthony Johnson and more are all options.
Another reason why it’s important that Shields come over is what I’m calling the Dan Hardy theory. After UFC 100, when we were watching the presser and Jason was recovering from Frank Mir’s loss, Jason said that Shields was the only person that he was interested in watching the GSP fight. I told him to calm down, and that he sounded like a Sherdog forum member panicking like that. New contenders pop up all the time.
Enter Dan Hardy. Is Hardy the second best welterweight in the UFC? No. However, since we have seen Fitch, Alves and Koscheck all fight the Canadian wonder already, Hardy gets the bump up. If we are willing to give that shot to Hardy, then we could easily give it to Shields. There is a suddenly interesting opponent for GSP.
Shields is a top-ten welterweight. There is never any problem with adding a top-ten guy to your company. However, Shields’ validity has been put into question because of him not fighting the top talent in his weight class. All that talent is in the UFC.
It’s too good to pass up for both sides.
After watching Mike Swick guillotine Joe Riggs at UFC 60, Anthony was completely hooked on MMA. Since then, he has dedicated himself to spreading the gospel to the uninitiated, showing the world why MMA is great.When not writing, or worrying about this site, Anthony enjoys reading and playing XBOX 360. 
