In Praise Of Jake Sheilds

by mason_beer on Nov 8, 2009 9:15 AM EST Comment 29 comments

First off, well done again by Strikeforce. They just keep putting on good fight cards and they do it for free, I think the promotion is coming along nicely and they just need to keep their growing young fighters instead of losing them to the UFC. Last night was the anti-Elite XC. All four fights highlighted to the casual fan what is great about this particular combat sport. The ground war between Antonio Silva and Frabircio Wedum, the back and forth throws between Moussasi and Sokodjou, the grueling war between Sheilds and Miller, and the the stand up excitment and ground n' pound of Fedor vs. Rogers. All the fighters last night, winner and loser, came out strong and gave it their best effort. Great show!

But I was particularly impressed with Jake Sheilds. A natural welterweight, Sheilds added muscle to make the 185 lbs, and MIller told everyone his goal was to wear Sheilds out. Questions about Sheilds gaining the weight, Miller's always great cardio. Instead, for five rounds Sheilds patiently took Miller down over and over, worked non-stop passing his gaurd, getting some ground n' pound, attemping submission after submission, never getting tired and never getting frusrated with Miller's guby-like defense. He kept working and working, and left Miller with nowhere to go.

The knock against Sheilds, kind of like Fedor, is his caliber of opponents. But for a natural welterweight to take out both Jason Miller and Robbie Lawler in the manner he did was impressive. There are fights for him in Strikeforce . . . Cung Le, Frank Shamrock, Scott Smith . . . and maybe even Dan Henderson.

The other thing I like about Sheilds is that he understands what he is and what his strenghts are. He doesn't mind getting booed, he doesn't mind not having highlight KOs on his record. Sheilds believes in his American Jiu-Jitsu hybrid style he fights with and sticks with it, working his wrestling, ground n' pound, and submissions flawlessly. And he never stops. Lesser fighters, without strong minds, would have allowed themselves to tire out or make a mistake through frustration against Miller's suburb defense.

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What i dong get is people have been calling his fight with Mayhem a dud. I was entertained most of the way though. There was lots of dynamic jiu jitsu. Great sweeps, takedowns and submission attempts. It slowed down at times but i think thats to be expected in a 5 rounder. Really didnt think it was boring a at all.

by Rabbit915 on Nov 8, 2009 9:26 AM EST reply actions 0 recs

Me either

I think it’s the “stand and bang” crowd who found it boring.

"Why am I here? Why does my mind have wings? Why do blue midgets hit me with fish?!" - The Tick

by mythbuster on Nov 8, 2009 3:06 PM EST up reply actions 0 recs

I thought it was a great technical fight

Miller would have won that fight if he hadn’t landed the choke at the end of the round. It had it’s moments despite being a 5 round decision.

by bignerd on Nov 9, 2009 12:01 AM EST up reply actions 0 recs

I thought it was a great fight. I wanted Mayhem to win and was trying to hate on shields for something, but he did anything but lnp. He constantly and I mean CONSTANTLY advanced his position looking to set up submissions. The amazing thing I found was that Shields seemed to get the upped hand positionally in about 90% of the seemingly 50/50 scurries.

As weird as it sounds, and perhaps a tad biased on my part, I was almost more impressed with Mayhems ability to avoid submissions. He had Jake Shields all over him for 5 rounds. Full mount, side control, flattened out on his back…..everything and never really looked to be in any sort of trouble. But sadly, you dont win a fight escaping submissions for 25mins.

I enjoyed the fight too!! The end of the 3rd when Mayhem nearly got the choke was one of the most exciting ends to a round Ive seen since Crocop v Big Nog!

by GeeDub on Nov 10, 2009 5:20 AM EST up reply actions 0 recs

Dan Henderson??? Yea, I don’t think so. But I agree, Shields does get a bad rap and he is an excellent fighter. He is a top tier welterweight, and I really respect the fact that he hasn’t grown complicit beating B level fighters, and in order to motivate and challenge himself has made the successful transition to middleweight. That said, he would get murdered by Hendo.

by mictlantechutli on Nov 8, 2009 9:40 AM EST reply actions 0 recs

I agree

but the point I was trying to make is that Sheilds would take that fight in a heartbeat.

Of course, if Hendo went to Strikeforce the fight I would really want to see is him against Moussasi.

by mason_beer on Nov 8, 2009 9:50 AM EST up reply actions 0 recs

People who don’t fully appreciate the ground game missed out on a fantastic title fight. I can understand even the most educated fan to be frustrated with Shield’s tactics, but it’s not like we didn’t see this coming.

I thought it was an emotional fight. You had the feeling that Miller had what it too, but Shield’s wrestling and BJJ was too good. Miller could be stopped, and constantly rallied against his oponnent, despite losing the majority of most of the rounds. Then Miller (unexpectly) sunk in the RNC and had it deep, but the bell saved Shields, who looked bewildered.

It was great.

"You guys are jerking eachother off with some pseudo deep bullshit." - Kid Nate

by kyfm621 on Nov 8, 2009 10:29 AM EST reply actions 0 recs

unexpectedly*

"You guys are jerking eachother off with some pseudo deep bullshit." - Kid Nate

by kyfm621 on Nov 8, 2009 10:30 AM EST up reply actions 0 recs

Shields had some of the best positional control I’ve seen in a long time and he completely owned most of the transitions; that said… he really didn’t threaten Mayhem at all.

The mat is my church, the ground is my heaven, Jiu-Jitsu is my religion. And once you hit the ground you're in my world. My world is like the ocean, I’m like a shark and most people don't even know how to swim - Draculino

by AboveThisFire on Nov 8, 2009 12:09 PM EST reply actions 0 recs

Agreed.

The lack of ground elbows really hurts Shields game. His ground and pound is much more effective when he can use elbows.

by Steve4192 on Nov 8, 2009 2:48 PM EST up reply actions 0 recs

Srsly

Strikeforce either needs elbows on the ground, or they need to institute Knees/ soccer kicks to the head of grounded opponents. I’d rather see elbows (especially after the Hirota/ Kitaoka fight, I mean honestly Kitaoka was puking after that stoppage, that made me question the safety of KttHOtG).

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'09 is the year of the FW's.

by ElliotMatheny on Nov 8, 2009 6:15 PM EST up reply actions 0 recs

Yah I don’t get the no elbows thing.

"Why am I here? Why does my mind have wings? Why do blue midgets hit me with fish?!" - The Tick

by mythbuster on Nov 8, 2009 6:38 PM EST up reply actions 0 recs

the fight was exciting from a grappling standpoint, i enjoyed it. However it works against jake shields rep as a guy who just lays on top of people. And that is partially because mayhem completely neutralized his jiujitsu, but mainly because that is shield’s ace in the hole.

when in doubt, he always just lays on top of the guy, they should have been stood up about 3-4 more times, when shields had mayhem “pinned” against the cage and was just holding on.

Mayhem deserves some criticism too, he came into this saying he wasn’t going to let shields dictate the pace/position. but whenever mayhem had a chance to make space and stand it back up, he would just jump right back on top of him…

It was aggravating to watch for me because i find shields boring to watch fight, and now he will get top billing at least once more.

by haggardhero on Nov 8, 2009 1:07 PM EST reply actions 0 recs

when in doubt, he always just lays on top of the guy

Huh?

Jake had finished eight consecutive opponents prior to last night. He just ran into a guy with great submission defense and was stymied by the ‘no ground elbows’ rule. Let Jake soften up Mayhem with elbows and we get a completely different fight.

by Steve4192 on Nov 8, 2009 2:53 PM EST up reply actions 0 recs

LOL!!!

However it works against jake shields rep as a guy who just lays on top of people.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jake_Shields

Steve already corrected you, but for fun, scroll down to his last fights:
Decision (last night)
Sub
Sub
Sub
Sub
TKO
etc.

"Why am I here? Why does my mind have wings? Why do blue midgets hit me with fish?!" - The Tick

by mythbuster on Nov 8, 2009 3:10 PM EST up reply actions 0 recs

I agree

Unfair comment. Jake has been a consistent finisher. Like saying all Matt Hughes ever did was lay on his opponents.

by bignerd on Nov 9, 2009 12:04 AM EST up reply actions 0 recs

Like saying all Matt Hughes ever did was lay on his opponents.

Sadly, there are a lot of people who believe that too.

by Steve4192 on Nov 9, 2009 8:17 AM EST up reply actions 0 recs

Not to mention

6 out of 7 of those finishes came in the first round

by Shaun32887 on Nov 9, 2009 10:55 AM EST up reply actions 0 recs

Clearly

He deserves the rep as not trying to finish fights.

"Why am I here? Why does my mind have wings? Why do blue midgets hit me with fish?!" - The Tick

by mythbuster on Nov 9, 2009 1:09 PM EST up reply actions 0 recs

The only thing that suprised me about the fight is that Shields wasnt as aggresive with his sub attempts as he has been in the past. But he had the best gameplan for a fighter like Miller that can beat him standing yet is really difficult to submit.

Hats off to Shields for executing a great gameplan

by IRodC on Nov 8, 2009 1:55 PM EST reply actions 0 recs

I loved this fight

i was watching this fight with my uncle and cousin who are mma fans but not like internet poster fans. They laughed when i said Shields would win and that Mayhem would kick ass since hes from bully beatdown . They didnt like that he made it a ground fight because hes being a pussy for night standin and bangin .
i didnt like that he didnt go and try to finish it more but eh i was entertained by it

Twitter @mikemazzacare

by MaZZacare on Nov 8, 2009 2:00 PM EST reply actions 0 recs

lay n pray

i felt like shields could’ve let his hands go a little more than he did. he seemed reluctant to just tee off even though he held dominant positions for the majority of the fight. i don’t know if it was because he was wary of his own cardio, or that he was just preoccupied with looking for a submission in miller’s defence.

i was a little disappointed the fight wasn’t stood up a few times when jake was deliberately holding mayhem against the cage. But in his defence, he had a sound gameplan and worked it perfectly. That being said, i was out of my seat when he got caught in the RNC.

by dagoldenmonkey on Nov 8, 2009 7:26 PM EST reply actions 0 recs

I’m a big Mayhem fan, and I was screaming when he sunk in the RNC. If only Miller had pulled it off 10 seconds earlier, eh? But that’s MMA. If Shields can tune up his GnP he could be quite a force at 185. I’m looking forward to seeing both of them fight again.

But if you are stupid, you will be beaten with a stick - Proverbs 10:13

by Ominous on Nov 8, 2009 8:27 PM EST reply actions 0 recs

i hope hendo would sign for one fight, kick the shit out of shields and vacate the belt and go back to UFC

by CC11 on Nov 9, 2009 4:08 AM EST reply actions 0 recs

Why?

"Why am I here? Why does my mind have wings? Why do blue midgets hit me with fish?!" - The Tick

by mythbuster on Nov 9, 2009 10:46 AM EST up reply actions 0 recs

Yeah that makes sense

by Shaun32887 on Nov 9, 2009 10:56 AM EST up reply actions 0 recs

I thought it was a great fight

by Shaun32887 on Nov 9, 2009 10:56 AM EST reply actions 0 recs

i thought shields looked pathetic

All he did is lay there any time he got a dominant position. He made a pathetic attempt to ground and pound. I don’t care who you are… when you are the champ, you gotta look for the finish, all he did was wait out a decision. I’m no longer a fan.

by adamdd on Nov 9, 2009 1:47 PM EST reply actions 0 recs

Were you actually watching?

I saw him go for a shitload of submissions (especially chokes), but Mayhem shut them all down so quickly that Jack had to move on to something else. I didn’t see any lack of effort to finish on Jake’s part. I saw some some awesome submission defense on Mayhem’s part.

by Steve4192 on Nov 9, 2009 2:14 PM EST up reply actions 0 recs