Jake Shields has not fought the best competition in the world recently.
Nevertheless, Shields has maintained his ranking as a top 10 welterweight. His last few fights have been dominating performances against overmatched opponents like Paul Daley, Nick Thompson and Mike Pyle. With the recent announcement of a June 6 fight for Shields against Robbie Lawler, Strikeforce is making sure his streak of easy opposition is about to end.
Due to the blow-up at EliteXC, Shields has been inactive since October 2008. He was the welterweight champion at EliteXC, but Strikeforce has chosen not to officially recognize any of the EliteXC champions. One weight class that boasts a lot of top Strikeforce fighters is the middleweight division. Rather than wait for Strikeforce to bring in fighters at his usual weight, Shields has decided to move up in order to face another former Elite XC champion in Lawler.
Shields and Lawler will do battle in the main event for the second Showtime card. The fight will originate in June from Lawler's hometown of St. Louis. With other potential opponents like Frank Shamrock, Cung Le, Benji Radach and Scott Smith (Shields would never fight training partner and friend Nick Diaz), Shields certainly has plenty of potential marquee matchups in the division.
We recently caught up with Shields to discuss a variety of topics including his thoughts on the upcoming fight with Lawler, who he'd like to fight at welterweight, and what he thinks about UFC president Dana White's positive comments about him.
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Q&A with former EliteXC welterweight champion Jake Shields
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