Strikeforce Disasters Part 2: Jake Shields Released, No One Wants the Middleweight Title

First the Shields situation, per Sherdog:

The 31-year-old Shields had been in a final-phase "matching period" of his recently completed contract with the San Jose, Calif.-based promotion, which allowed him to receive bids from other organizations, including the UFC, that Strikeforce could review and match in order to keep his services. However, the source said Strikeforce waived that contractual right in its final 2-3 weeks and opted to release the Cesar Gracie fighter altogether before the period expired.

Strikeforce CEO Scott Coker confirmed to Sherdog.com that the promotion informed Jack Shields, the fighter's manager and father, of the release on Wednesday. Coker would not comment further on the decision.

"In the conversation we had today, they said they felt that Jake was leaning towards the UFC. Honestly, we were talking to them with an open mind, though Jake wants to fight the best," said the elder Shields. "Between Strikeforce and EliteXC, Jake had the chance to fight on Showtime and CBS four or five times against some top fighters like Dan Henderson and Robbie Lawler. Strikeforce gave him great opportunities and exposure. They've been nothing but great for Jake."

Zach Arnold transcribes Dave Meltzer's take on the situation and adds some commentary:

"Yeah. Well, it was bound to happen. I mean, before he even left when they were already talking about the tournament, you know what I'm saying? I mean, you know, and I saw Jake at the show Saturday and you know I mean he wasn't like 100% but I mean you know... the minute he showed up on that WEC show with Dana (White), you know, even if he hadn't decided, the bottom line is that I think that Strikeforce pretty much decided they weren't going to make him any kind offer. That was slapping them in the face, it really was."

...

I mean as far as leverage and going back-and-forth, you know them pulling out certainly hurts his leverage, you know but I think Dana is going to make him a good offer no matter what. He was already going after him. I don't think he's going to lowball him even though he's got the leverage to do it now. However, he... if they had gotten both sides you know they could have gotten into a bidding war to take it higher on both sides and that is not going to happen. So, you know, he's going to get I think what probably would be a fair deal, you know, and it'll be interesting to see who he faces because you get a guy who can strike with the takedown defense and I mean Jake's got that weakness, you know, I mean his striking sucks, you know by you know the level of a top 185 or 170 pounder. His ground game is fantastic and his wrestling is very good. So, you know he can beat you know if you don't have very good takedown defense, he will beat you. But, you know, the guys, if you got great takedown and you can hit, that's going to be Jake's weakness."

The most interesting aspect to this story is that the Shields camp wants to face Anderson Silva. We all know what Dana White said before the fight between Shields and Dan Henderson when he said that Shields had no business being in there against a guy that big. Wonder what Dana would say if there was money at stake to book a fight between Shields and Anderson?

Shields certainly didn't help his chances of using Strikeforce to generate competing and better offers from the UFC when he all but sat in Dana White's lap on camera at WEC 48. I doubt that really helped his case with either promoter. It might have been hard to decline Dana's invitation, but he played himself by accepting. Insulting a soon to be ex never helps in the divorce.

Now as for the big tournament to replace Shields as the Strikeforce MW champ, Coker's been spinning some alluring fantasies: Cung Le, Nick Diaz, Dan Henderson, Mayhem Miller, Jacare Souza, Tim Kennedy, the Sengoku Champ, etc etc. 

Well not so fast Scott. Cung Le wants none of it. Dan Henderson says not so much. Diaz and Mayhem are suspended through August. So it looks like once again Scott Coker's big plans are collapsing around his ears.

One thing I'm wondering, have the fighters begun to notice that the Strikeforce belt -- with its onerous championship clause that means the champ can't leave until he loses -- is really a golden pair of handcuffs? The natural step for a fighter who's cleared out a minor league (and with Fedor's loss, that's what Strikeforce is in all but women's MMA and the mens' 155lb division) is to move up to the bigs. But the UFC won't take a fighter off a loss and unless he wants to spend years in court,  he can't up and leave.

Shields didn't have a champions clause in his deal because his contract with Strikeforce carried over from his EliteXC days.

This goes for Bellator too. Will Hector Lombard, Eddie Alvarez, Lyman Good or maybe Ben Askren and Joe Warren be stuck in minor league purgatory for the end of their careers?

I'm a big fan of Strikeforce and have generally been more sympathetic to them than their competitors, but it's getting to the point where even Kid Nate knows which way the wind is blowing. And it's a gale force blast that's wiping out competing MMA promotions. 

More on what it all means in the full entry.

Zach Arnold elaborates:

Strikeforce has been trying to rehabilitate its image since the debacle last April in Nashville on CBS. It was such a terrible show on so many levels. You had title fights for titles that the fans don't care about. Therefore, you had five round fights involving fighters who have shown throughout their careers that they can go five rounds a fight. 

After killing the crowd with King Mo vs. Gegard Mousasi, Gilbert Melendez vs. Shin'ya Aoki, and Jake Shields vs. Dan Henderson, proponents of having most MMA fights go five rounds got burned. Then there was the riot at the end of the Nashville event with the Diaz Brothers going after Mayhem Miller. On top of that, the ratings were atrocious for the CBS broadcast. Put that all together and you found Strikeforce in a desperate situation to try to get back onto CBS. 

The June 26th event from San Jose was supposed to be a show that rehabilitated the brand so the suits at CBS would give the promotion one more crack. So what did the suits see? They saw a fight between a natural 170-pounder in Cris Cyborg versus a natural 140 pounder in Jan Finney with a .500 record, a fight that should have never been sanctioned by the California State Athletic Commission. However, it was sanctioned and it was every bit the beating that everyone thought it would be. Unfortunately, it exceeded expectations and disgusted a lot of people who were watching. 

After that fight, the suits watched 38-year Cung Le work his San Shou magic and obliterate Scott Smith in their revenge rematch. Smith pulled out a win last December and gave Cung his first loss. Cung has been spending time making movies and do out-of-the-cage activities in his life. So, naturally, Scott Coker decided to book their revenge match and announce it to the public... two weeks before the show took place. On top of that, he announced that the winner of the fight would be in the promotion's upcoming 8-man Middleweight tournament now that Jake Shields is all but gone to UFC and will vacate his belt.

And lastly Fight Opinion transcribes this exchange from Sherdog radio that gets to the heart of Strikeforce's problems with their fighters:

LUTFI SARIAHMED: "Here's a question for you that just kind of popped into my head: For the longest time when we were talking about the Dan Henderson discussion in regard to what he was going to do, where he was going to sign, why he was going to sign where he said, we had said, all right Dan Henderson is going to go to Strikeforce because it's more about the individual as opposed to just the promotion and it's more about pumping up the individual than it is about the promotion on the whole. And you love that for the fighters because obviously it's good for them, but it seems as if Strikeforce has run into all sorts of problems because they let the fighters dictate what's going on."

JACK ENCARNACAO: "Yeah. I think rather the fighters feel more emboldened to you know speak their mind in the direction and I've praised fighters in the UFC and the WEC on air for calling people out after fights because I consider it a huge waste of time to get a great win on TV and then just be you know not put into the mind of people who just watched you get you this great win who you might fight next and therefore invest them in your future to some small degree. But you know it seems to go in the complete opposite extreme with Strikeforce where I mean their big names are just impossible to pin down for fights, you just don't know where they're going, what they're doing, who they want next, they'll throw names out there just there's nothing that's built to it, you know why does Babalu want to fight Dan Henderson? If he has his reasons, you know he lost to him in 1999... if he his reasons, they certainly have nothing to do with what's happened in Strikeforce you know whereas when guys in the UFC want to fight certain guys it's because pf things they've done in the UFC and I think that's part of the missing ingredient there for Strikeforce right now."