PWInsiderXTRA - WWE News, Wrestling News, WWE

LOOKING AT JAKE SHIELDS IN THE UFC

After a few months of speculation, former Strikeforce Middleweight Champion Jake Shields has signed with the Ultimate Fighting Championships. While Jake Shields enters the promotion after a run as a middleweight in Strikeforce, Jake Shields will enter the UFC as a welterweight. Which, if everything were to workout perfectly for Jake Shields, would mean a UFC Welterweight Title opportunity against Georges St. Pierre.

Jake Shields will be entering the UFC Welterweight Division with potential fights coming against the aforementioned Georges St. Pierre, Josh Koscheck, Thiago Alves, Jon Fitch, Mike Swick, Martin Kampmann, Paulo Thiago and others. The real question could be, how many fights must Jake Shields win before getting a UFC Welterweight Title opportunity?

Currently, Georges St. Pierre has a title defense lined up against Josh Koscheck after the UFC Ultimate Fighter 12 concludes, with the winner of the Thiago Alves/Jon Fitch winner getting the next title shot, so Jake Shields may have to fight twice before getting a title shot. It will be truly interesting to see who Jake Shields will be paired up with when he officially makes his UFC debut.

Now, lets take some time here to look at the promotion Jake Shields left in order to sign with the UFC, that promotion is Strikeforce. Originally, it was widely believed that Strikeforce would hold a tournament to crown a Strikeforce Middleweight Champion, but now Tim Kennedy will meet Ronaldo Souza to crown a new Strikeforce Middleweight Champion.

Strikeforce, even without Jake Shields, does have a strong middleweight division with Tim Kennedy, Ronaldo Souza, Robbie Lawler, Melvin Manhoef, Scott Smith, Cung Le and others competing for the coveted crown. So, with or without Jake Shields, the Strikeforce Middleweight Division will still remain a strong entity in the promotion.

One thing I truly believe is that the signing of Jake Shields has, for the time being, saved the UFC Welterweight Division from being a Georges St. Pierre domination festival. For the last few years, most people have viewed the UFC Welterweight Division as Georges St. Pierre’s playground and Jake Shields could potentially change this point of view.

One UFC division the signing of Jake Shields could hurt within the UFC in the UFC Middleweight Division, headed by UFC Middleweight Champion Anderson Silva. I say this because once Jake Shields announced that he was heading to the UFC Welterweight Division, it potentially ruined a Anderson Silva versus Jake Shields middleweight battle.

If you look back at the last few fights of Georges St. Pierre since winning back the UFC Welterweight Title over Matt Serra at UFC 83, which are all dominant victories over Jon Fitch, BJ Penn, Thiago Alves and Dan Hardy. Now, if you look back at Jake Shields run in Strikeforce, it featured dominant victories over Robbie Lawler, Jason Miller and Dan Henderson.

Now, obviously all hopes within the UFC should be a potential UFC Welterweight Title battle between Georges St. Pierre and Jake Shields sometime in 2011. However, Georges St. Pierre has to get past Josh Koscheck and the Thiago Alves/Jon Fitch winner and Jake Shields has to achieve a few UFC victories before the collision and even be put together.

You can contact David Tees at bigtees360@yahoo.com

---