Former Strikeforce middleweight champion and onetime UFC title challenger Jake Shields will be looking for a new promotion to call home. The welterweight has been released by the UFC, his manager on Monday confirmed with MMAjunkie. The news first was reported Monday by MMA Fighting. Shields (29-7-1 MMA, 4-3 UFC) sees his release on the heels of a unanimous decision loss to Hector Lombard a little more than three weeks ago at UFC 171 in Dallas. That loss snapped a four-fight unbeaten streak for the Californian, a longtime training partner of Nick and Nate Diaz and Gilbert Melendez. In a statement released to MMAjunkie, Shields’ manager, Alchemist Management’s Lex McMahon, said new possibilities are already in the works for the fighter. “Jake appreciates the opportunities provided by the UFC and thanks Dana White and Lorenzo Fertita,” the statement read. “Jake is an elite athlete who is one of the best welterweight fighters in the world with a long history of winning at a championship level. Jake and our team are already exploring options. I’m confident that Jake will have a new promotion to call home very soon. Jake thanks his fans for their support and looks forward to competing for them again soon.” The 35-year-old Shields was regarded as one of the world’s best welterweights outside of the UFC when he signed with EliteXC and went on to win that promotion’s 170-pound title with a submission of Nick Thompson in just 63 seconds in 2008. He defended that belt with a submission of Paul Daley before the promotion shuttered its doors. Shields moved up to middleweight when he signed with Strikeforce in 2009 and submitted Robbie Lawler. Then he beat Jason Miller to win the vacant 185-pound belt in November 2009. Against Dan Henderson, he had a stiff test in his first title defense. But after a rough first round, he went on to dominate the former PRIDE champion for a unanimous decision in what would be his final fight for the promotion. Shields signed with the UFC in 2010 an took a split decision from Martin Kampmann in his promotional debut, a return to welterweight. That got him a shot at then-champ Georges St-Pierre in UFC 129′s main event. But despite doing what was then almost unheard of, taking rounds on the judges’ scorecards from the champion, he dropped a decision for his first loss since December 2004, snapping a 15-fight winning streak. Shields’ next fight was a main event against Jake Ellenberger that came not long after his father had passed away. In New Orleans, he was stopped in 53 seconds for the first back-to-back losses of his career. He rebounded with a unanimous decision win over Yoshihiro Akiyama at UFC 144 in February 2012. But after a decision win at middleweight over Ed Herman, he failed a post-fight drug test and was suspended and fined. When he returned, it was again at welterweight, and he picked up back-to-back split-decision wins against Tyron Woodley and Demian Maia in 2013 to put himself back in the title discussion at 170 pounds. A win over Lombard would have elevated that talk. Instead, Shields will look for a new place to fight. Shields joins fighters like Jon Fitch, Yushin Okami and Melvin Guillard as recent high-profile releases by the UFC.
I kind of like the idea of a potential Poalhares-Shields fight in the WSOF. The UFC is a fickle place. Koscheck loses three in a row and remains. Meanwhile Shields is just one fight removed from beating Woodley, who might be the next title challenger at 170. Not to mention, Maia was ripping through the 170 pound division before running into Shields. Odd.
koscheck's usually in entertaining scraps. shields isn't fun to watch unless you're really into grappling. look at diego sanchez. he's lost his last two and arguably lost 5 losses in a row, but he's always out to entertain to crowd. he's now slated to fight pearson on the co-feature of henderson vs. khabilov.
Well the statement doesn't read as if Shields is very disappointed about it. He probably thinks that being a title contender in a smaller organisation will get him more money than being a gatekeeper in the UFC.
