...OH, ONE MORE THING - PLEASE BOOKMARK US & VISIT DAILY!
By: Jamie Penick, MMATorch Editor-in-Chief Strikeforce has added another big name fighter to the April 11th card on Showtime, as final EliteXC Welterweight Champion Jake Shields has signed with the organization and will face Joe Riggs at the event. MMAWeekly.com confirmed the signing and the bout on Tuesday.
Shields had been in limbo following the closing of EliteXC, and with the layoff was prepared to fight in the courtroom for the right to seek employment elsewhere. According to the report, however, Shields opted to to sign with Strikeforce and avoid a longer layoff in a legal battle.
His last fight came in a successful title defense against Paul Daley on the final EliteXC event on CBS back in October, and he'll now be squaring off against a veritable veteran in Joe Riggs, who at only 26 has compiled a 29-10 record coming into this April 11th card.
Penick's Analysis: It would have been great to see Shields take a crack at the welterweight division in the UFC, but it's good for him now to know when his next fight's going to be instead of being tangled in an embittered legal battle for any length of time. Riggs has been such an up and down fighter, both in weight classes and performance, throughout his career that it's hard to tell which guy you're going to get. If he's on the down side of his game he may not be a big challenge for Shields, but if he's on than it should be a very good bout. I'm extremely excited for this first Strikeforce on Showtime offering, and I'm very interested to see how Shields does continuing to be a big fish in the smaller pond. If the comments by his father are accurate, he'll be headlining a Strikeforce card in the summer against "well known opponent" also.
DON'T GO YET... WE SUGGEST THESE MMATORCH ARTICLES, TOO!
Jamie Penick, editor-in-chief
(mmatorcheditor@gmail.com)
STAFF COLUMNISTS: Shawn Ennis - Jason Amadi
Frank Hyden - Rich Hansen
Chris Park - Matt Pelkey
Interested in joining MMATorch's writing team? Send idea for a theme to your column (for Specialist section) or area of interest (i.e. TV Reporter) along with a sample of writing to mmatorch@gmail.com.
