Jake Shields: Strikeforce Wants To Push "Has-Beens" Like Shamrock & Le-Not Great Young Fighters

Which seems to be one of the reasons that Jake Shields left the promotion for UFC. "I’m brand new to the UFC but they have treated me absolutely wonderful much better than Strikeforce to this point. They return my phone calls and I get seats unlike Strikeforce but so far things have been absolutely perfect. I don’t want to knock Strikeforce because that’s not my style even though they did treat me like **** which was unnecessary because I never talked bad about them. Honestly I would love to see Gilbert and Nick in the UFC. Even though Strikeforce is a good show, everyone knows it’s the number two show. They have a handful of good fighters but all the top competition is in the UFC and I feel that Nick and Gilbert are good enough to fight at the highest level. I just don’t see Strikeforce putting the marketing strength behind him as they didn’t for me. I feel like they (Strikeforce) want to go after the places that have already been built like Shamrock or Cung Le. They don’t seem really interested in building top young fighters in their prime. They had a great batch of young fighters like me, Nick, Gil and King Mo but they weren’t interested in great young fighters and instead all the push went to 'has beens' like Shamrock and Cung Le. It seemed like they wanted to push people who were no where near their prime."

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I love how he says he doesn't want to knock Strikeforce because "it's not his style" and then he goes on to bash the crap out of them.

I kinda agree with Jake on this. Strikeforce come across as a pretty shitty run company.

And they sure haven't taken advantage of Lawal's title win over Mousasi. I've heard about him maybe twice since.

The soap opera begins. Shields, handle yourself with dignity before ye get beaten out of the UFC and have nothing to fall back on.

Poor baby. Can't wait to see him humbled. Funny how UFC lovers expect Strikeforce to have some sort of magic marketing machine and an infinite amount of money.

To be fair, Strikeforce *is* still trying to build their product. Promoting the recognizable names is how you get the most butts in the seats.

I understand that Strikeforce is in the building faze and that they need to worry #1 about putting butts in seats, but they also need to worry about what happens to those butts when all these old timers retire. In other words, what good is attendance if it has no longevity?

Cung Le seems to be slowing down, I even thought so in his win over Smith. Fedor just lost for the first time. Henderson failed to capture the title. Lashley is more of an experiment at this stage of his career. Herschel Walker never was or will be a legit contender.

There's no excuse for the neglect they've shown there champions. The promotion for the Shields vs Hendo fight was really embarrassing, they completely ignored their champion in favor of promoting the guy they assumed would win.

Besides if they only have an interest in riding the wave of these guys former popularity and not building popularity of their own, why not sign Kimbo Slice?

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Posted by BlueSkiesBurn

The soap opera begins. Shields, handle yourself with dignity before ye get beaten out of the UFC and have nothing to fall back on.

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That will def. happen

The people who run those businesses are obviously in competition, and the fighters should feel free to leverage that fact when negotiating a contract, but as a fan of MMA, I find the whole "UFC-vs-Strikeforce" thing mostly annoying.

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Posted by AchillesHeel

The people who run those businesses are obviously in competition, and the fighters should feel free to leverage that fact when negotiating a contract, but as a fan of MMA, I find the whole "UFC-vs-Strikeforce" thing mostly annoying.

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I see where you're coming from but at the same time competition breeds success. It encourages the companies to combat one another with their best possible product. AFL, NFL....WWF, WCW....NBA, ABA. It just works really well. Now I kinda wonder what will happen to Shields if/when he gets released from the UFC too. I don't think he will be a title contender at 185, but at 170 the guy can probably be in line for a shot after a couple of quality wins. The Nashville show was extremely poorly marketed. Shields basically got crapped on in that situation and Henderson was the Golden boy who happened that night to not have the Midas touch. I understand needing to push your current stars, but at the risk of drawing an analogy thats going to piss people off, at some point in time you have to create new stars. I watched wrestling a lot as a kid...yes WWF and WCW back in the day. The best thing that ever happened to Vince McMahon and company was for Ted Turner to shell out a ton of money to take away Hogan, Savage, Hart ect... When that happened McMahon pushed guys like Austin, and the Rock. They made more money in that time frame than ever before and put WCW out of business. If Strikeforce doesn't change something then eventually they will follow the road paved by Elite XC and Affliction. King Mo, and Gilbert Melindez are really good fighters who haven't been pushed at all. The bad thing about being the little guy in business is that at some point in time you have to change something or take a risk if you ever want to be a true competitor. The same ole same ole won't get the job done.

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Posted by jlock003

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Posted by AchillesHeel

The people who run those businesses are obviously in competition, and the fighters should feel free to leverage that fact when negotiating a contract, but as a fan of MMA, I find the whole "UFC-vs-Strikeforce" thing mostly annoying.

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I see where you're coming from but at the same time competition breeds success. It encourages the companies to combat one another with their best possible product. AFL, NFL....WWF, WCW....NBA, ABA. It just works really well. Now I kinda wonder what will happen to Shields if/when he gets released from the UFC too. I don't think he will be a title contender at 185, but at 170 the guy can probably be in line for a shot after a couple of quality wins. The Nashville show was extremely poorly marketed. Shields basically got crapped on in that situation and Henderson was the Golden boy who happened that night to not have the Midas touch. I understand needing to push your current stars, but at the risk of drawing an analogy thats going to piss people off, at some point in time you have to create new stars. I watched wrestling a lot as a kid...yes WWF and WCW back in the day. The best thing that ever happened to Vince McMahon and company was for Ted Turner to shell out a ton of money to take away Hogan, Savage, Hart ect... When that happened McMahon pushed guys like Austin, and the Rock. They made more money in that time frame than ever before and put WCW out of business. If Strikeforce doesn't change something then eventually they will follow the road paved by Elite XC and Affliction. King Mo, and Gilbert Melindez are really good fighters who haven't been pushed at all. The bad thing about being the little guy in business is that at some point in time you have to change something or take a risk if you ever want to be a true competitor. The same ole same ole won't get the job done.

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Those examples (NFL/AFL, NBA/ABA) would lead me to believe that it would be best for the UFC to eat the others. Those sports got most popular once it was all under "one roof". That is ultimately what I want to happen and what I feel is best for the sport.

Jake shouldn't be burning his bridges so soon.
He might want to cross back over if his UFC career turns out to be less succsussfull.

I think Jake is just following his new boss's unwritten rules when it comes to the competition, polishing the perverbial knob if you will. I really don't understand why so many of the guys here think Jake is going to be a non-factor in the UFC.....seriously look at others who have came into the UFC from other companies, none of them are champions but all are doing well enough.

What companies are you speaking of?

Pride and IFL mainly.....Wandy, Rampage, Cro Cop, Nelson, Harris, Markham, ect...

Edited to include full title of article.

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Posted by jae_1833

Pride and IFL mainly.....Wandy, Rampage, Cro Cop, Nelson, Harris, Markham, ect...

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How is Pride not doing well? They have 2 champions Silva and Rua. Former champions: Nog & Rampage....Pride is doing REALLY well. IFL, not so much...

What Shields is saying is correct I mean they treated Shields like crap with the whole Henderson fight and just about everything but I do understand the name values need to be pushed as a starting business. I don't have a problem hearing it from Shields because he knows better then any of us what goes on at Strikeforce. I'm sick of the UFC/Strikeforce thing as well it's just stupid at this point.

Also so many seem to be knocking Shields run in the UFC.....I'm not saying he's going to be champ or anything but he should have a very good career with the UFC no doubt.

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Posted by BlueSkiesBurn

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Posted by jae_1833

Pride and IFL mainly.....Wandy, Rampage, Cro Cop, Nelson, Harris, Markham, ect...

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How is Pride not doing well? They have 2 champions Silva and Rua. Former champions: Nog & Rampage....Pride is doing REALLY well. IFL, not so much...

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They are doing good, which is why I think that another guy (Shields)from a different org (SF), can also do realy well.....it's not like he has been fighting a bunch of newbs.