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Fox Sports: "Zach Arnold's Fight Opinion site is one of the best spots on the Web for thought-provoking MMA pieces."

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Should Jake Shields get a UFC title shot if he beats Martin Kampmann?

By Zach Arnold | July 22, 2010

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Related: Is it right for promoters to not push winning fighters because they are viewed as ‘boring’?

A conversation between Steve Cofield and Dave Meltzer:

STEVE COFIELD: “How good of a deal do you think he got? How does it compare to some of the other, you know, elite fighters that are in UFC if it was… is he in the Top 15 or is he kind of just a mid-level guy?”

DAVE MELTZER: “I DON’T KNOW! I don’t know what kind of a deal he got. Part of the thing is that I don’t think he… it wasn’t the bidding war that he may have hoped for because I think Strikeforce, from talking to people at Strikeforce, it was clear to me that they had decided they weren’t going to go into a bidding war even though he was their champion. They felt that he had not proven himself to be marketable, so… if it got to be big numbers they were going to just let him go and that’s what happened.”

STEVE COFIELD: “So, you know, I was reading some of the comments from the Wrestling Observer. You have pretty strong thoughts on Jake Shield. I think you’re kind of along of the same lines that you don’t think he’s that marketable, right?”

DAVE MELTZER: “Um… I mean the thing is that if you become a UFC champion, you’re going to eventually become marketable. I mean, that’s just the thing of being in the UFC. … Lyoto Machida, at first, wasn’t marketable but you know he won so many fights that he became marketable but right off the bat? No. I think it’s going to take some, you know I don’t think that he was that marketable coming off of the CBS exposure even though he won a lot of fights on Strikeforce. The people really didn’t take to him. So… if it wins his fights, he’ll be a star, but I don’t think he’s walking in like say someone like Fedor would walk in or someone else you know would walk in and is already a ready-made star.”

STEVE COFIELD: “Do you go as far as kind of saying that they almost have to be careful in the way they promote him to the point where maybe they have to bury him on cards because they don’t want to create false expectations that he’s kind of a boring fighter?”

DAVE MELTZER: “That depends because you know again he’s going to get a chance, he’s going to start with Martin Kampmann who’s… Martin Kampmann usually has good fights, so he’s got the opportunity to go in there and have a good fight and I think wins. You know it’ll move him up so that’s a good one. If he’s in there with a wrong opponent, he can have really boring fights and they’ve done this with you know even with like you know Fitch and Yushin Okami, guys that are winning fighters with great records, they put them on undercards for various reasons for fear of slowing the pace down on the live show and with the wrong opponent, Jake definitely can be a guy like that so they have but whatever, they’re not dumb, you know got to you know you got to make sure he’s got the kind of an opponent that he’s not going to be able to do that to.”

STEVE COFIELD: “You know, I kind of like the signing because I think from if you’re looking ahead for future Georges St. Pierre opponents, I like the fact that Shields is a guy who will force Georges to stand up. Now that may not be good for Shields but I think Shields is one of the only guys out there who’s kind of close to the same level on the grappling front as GSP.”

DAVE MELTZER: “Well, GSP told me himself that he thinks that Jake Shields is better on the ground than he is. I mean that might be the only, that’s the only time I’ve ever heard him say that about anyone so that tells me that you know he would, his smart fight is to stand up with Jake Shield and yeah that would be, if nothing else, it would be a very different St. Pierre fight and you know it’ll probably test him because I think at some point that fight is going to the ground but I don’t think Georges is going to do what he’s been doing with other people which is immediately take them down and make sure to keep it down and that’s the goal the whole fight. I think the goal with the fighter with (Shields) is a little bit of everything. I don’t think that you know, he’s going to want to keep it standing, maybe go to the ground when he thinks the guy is tired, but not that whole ground fight, so yeah… again it’s a new, fresh opponent. If Shields wins like… to me I think it’s two good wins and Georges is still the champion, you know, that’s a good new opponent because again you know Fitch and Alves, the winner of that fight really should get a shot but we’ve seen Georges against both of those guys and he won every round against both of them so a new opponent would be, you know, and he probably beats Koscheck, a new opponent would be really good. So, I think Shields is coming in for him at a pretty good time.”

STEVE COFIELD: “So, if you were the UFC, you just mentioned two fights to help build Shields. If he, you know, goes out there and you know 3 or 4 minutes just takes down Kampmann, twists him up, finishes him, can he get the GSP fight that quickly? Can he do it based on one fight or they need more time or lead time to build him?”

DAVE MELTZER: “It depends on the circumstances of… I tell you, if he goes in there and wins in like two minutes, you know I would think that actually I would have him, I would… if it works out I might ahve him sit at that point because he’ll ready-made. If he goes in there and he struggles and it’s a win but it’s not an impressive win, I think he might need, I think he would need another win at that point. It depends. You know that St. Pierre’s fighting Koscheck next and that’s December, so and St. Pierre doesn’t want to fight that often so we’re really talking about next, late Spring, early Summer so I think he may have to get two fights in there no matter what really and again, if Fitch wins, it’s really hard for me to justify Fitch not getting another shot just because it’s so many wins in a row and beating Alves, who’s you know such a top contender, I mean you know the flipside is if Koscheck wins and Fitch wins, then we’ve got a real interesting thing because they should be offered that fight and there’s a good chance that they’ll turn down, certainly there’s a chance they’ll turn it down because nobody from AKA is going to fight anyone, and that may springboard Shields into a match with Koscheck, actually, quicker. If things go in a certain way, you know, it’s all I hate to go so far in advance because the UFC there are so many variables in every single match but I could see, you know it’s possible he could it in one (fight), but more likely it’s going to take two wins. If he doesn’t win both, then he’s going to have a longer trip to get there because you lose in UFC, you lose your place in line.”

STEVE COFIELD: “Do you agree with what Strikeforce did? Clearly their attitude is that losing their Middleweight champ, the guy who beat their big free agent signing Dan Henderson, isn’t going to cripple them.”

DAVE MELTZER: “Um… I think that right now you know I mean I don’t know of the finances, the financial situation of Strikeforce, but given that almost everyone in Strikeforce was kind of seemed to be on the same page on that one, I think that they probably all felt that. I mean, breaking the bank to keep Jake Shields… even though he had a big win, I don’t think he had that much momentum so I would say… I think they probably did the best thing… the problem is that you certainly don’t want it to look like that you are the feeder system and you know this guy beating you know your second most popular fighter and then going on to UFC, I wouldn’t like to have win-at-all-costs but there’s a financial number where you just go, hey, it’s just not worth it to us and clearly the fact that they didn’t chase him that hard… the deal was over that number.”

Topics: Media, MMA, StrikeForce, UFC, Zach Arnold | 9 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |

9 Responses to “Should Jake Shields get a UFC title shot if he beats Martin Kampmann?”

  1. Jeremy (Not that Jeremy) says:

    There’s no objective ranking system used to determine matchups in UFC, so there’s no reason for any fighter to be “entitled” to a title shot unless he has a specific contractual agreement to that effect.

    It’s not like organized team or individual sports where performance over a specific measurement period is used to match up competitors for a title game or seed them into brackets.

  2. Mark says:

    Outside of if Fedor came into UFC prior to the Werdum loss, I don’t think anybody should be granted a title shot that fast. But they more than likely will since they have nothing beyond the winner of Fitch/Alves getting the next title shot. But I say no especially for Jake for two reasons.

    #1 His biggest, most respected wins are at 185, not 170.

    #2 UFC has spent 2 years running down everybody who ever fought in Strikeforce as a third-rate fighter, so how can they not look like total hypocrites building this guy up for several Strikeforce wins (over guys they say suck too bad to deserve UFC jobs, and namely in another weight class) and one win over a fighter who is hardly among the top 5 fighters of the division. Plus it’s not like the fans are going to say “OMG I HAVE TO SEE HIM FIGHT GSP NOW~!” after the fight like how people wanted Anderson Silva immediately pushed to the top after his destruction of Leben. Shields is the kind of fighter who will have to grow on fans, he’s not going to be an automatic big star.

    • Mark says:

      PS- GSP is absolutely going to want to keep it standing. Shields has some of the worst stand up in MMA. He would easily pick him apart and probably TKO him within 3 rounds.

  3. 45 Huddle says:

    Winner of Shields/Kampmann should get a title shot next.

    Shields has beaten Condit & Daley at 170. Kampmann would be his 3rd win over a current Top 10 WW. And his big win over Henderson is icing on the cake. And if Kampmann beats him, he will have beaten Thiago and Shields in 2 straight fights. He also has a win over Condit.

  4. cutch says:

    Daley is the best ranked WW he has beat and I am sure they will mention he holds wins over Henderson, Okami, Lawler & Mayhem.

  5. edub says:

    1. Shields should(and will) get the title shot if he beats Kampman. Wins over Paul Daley, Martin Kampman, Mike Pyle, and Nick Thompson at the times they happened were great wins(obviously the Kampman fight has an if factor). Also just because fights against Lawler, Henderson, and Shields were competed at 185 you can’t just overlook them.

    2. If Kampman wins he should fight the winner of Alves/Fitch for the next shot. His loss to daley 3 fights aago still hurts his credibility IMO.

    3. The winner of Condit/Hardy should fight the loser of Alves/Fitch. The loser of Koscheck/GSP should fight the loser of Kampman/Shields.(Random I know)

  6. david m says:

    Shields has no shot at taking GSP down and couldn’t punch his way out of a paper bag. GSP by TKo rd 1

  7. rainrider says:

    Mauricio Rua was gonna get a title shot if he won his UFC debut against Forrest. Shields is in the same situation. All he has to do is beat the Danish and he’ll fight the champ who called him out before.

    I think Jake Shields is a great fighter, possibly one of the best ground guys ever with a career in this industry. But his fighting style is not exactly an exiciting one. His 25 minute performance will be a lot tiresome to watch than what GSP has shown us the last few years. Shields becoming new champ = end of the UFC WW division.

  8. Bill says:

    If he beats Kampmann and if GSP beats Koscheck AGAIN .. then they should make a Shields vs GSP fight happen. Shields is on a 14 fight win streak, he deserves a shot. GSP has beaten most of the other contenders anyway. I’d rather see Shields vs. GSP before Fitch vs GSP once AGAIN.

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