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By: Jamie Penick, MMATorch Editor-in-Chief
With Jake Shields' final fight on his Strikeforce contract coming up on April 17th, there has been a belief from many that the UFC is where his next fight will be. That thought will gain a whole lot more steam after comments made by UFC President Dana White following the UFC on Versus: Vera vs. Jones press conference on Saturday night.
"Dan Henderson is fighting f***ing Jake Shields," White said to reporters after the press conference. "Come on. Are you serious? Jake Shields is 170 pounds, and he's their Champion."
Not one to mix words, Dana continued with his thoughts on the three second promotional clips that CBS is running for the fight during March Madness.
"And I just found out today that they're running commercials on [CBS], and the commercials are like three seconds, and it basically says, 'MMA legend Dan Henderson,' and he hits a heavy bag, I guess, and looks back at the camera. That's the f***ing commercial. How about, 'Jake Shields is our f***ing champion'?"
As for the matchup itself, White was even more vehement in his distaste for the matchup. "Jake Shields is on the last fight of his contract," said White. "So they're feeding him to Dan Henderson right now because they want to get rid of him because he's going to go away, or they're going to have to pay him some big money to stick around or whatever the deal is. 'We're paying more money to Dan Henderson than we can afford already, so let's get Jake's ass kicked by Dan Henderson and get rid of Jake Shields.' It's such f***ing bush-league bullsh**, and you guys know it. They're a f***ing joke. Showtime's always been a joke with all their sports programming, and this is no different."
As many observers believe, as does White that Henderson is a major favorite in the fight with Shields. But win or lose, White says the UFC is interested in the current Strikeforce Middleweight Champ for the welterweight division.
"If Jake Shields could pull that off [against Henderson], that would be incredible, and good for him. He's going to get paid because what's going to happen is we would love to take him from there, and I'm sure they'd love to pay him to stick around. I will help drive that f***ing number right up through the roof and let the Showtime boys pay him a lot of money so that Jake can stick it right up their ass. 'I just choked out Dan Henderson, and now you f***ers are going to pay me for trying to stick it up my ass. I'm going to stick it up yours.'"
As for if Shields loses, White said they'd still be interested in him, and he pointed to the matchup with Henderson to make his point. "The fight makes no sense," he said. "You're going to fight Dan Henderson at 185 lbs. when you're really the 170 lb. champion? That's how f***ed up that company is, and they're our competitor."
Penick's Analysis: Well, I think it's safe to say that if Jake Shields doesn't go to the UFC after this fight with Dan Henderson it will be because Strikeforce and Showtime have reached into their pockets and paid out more for him than they can probably reasonably afford at this stage. Dana's going to be right there bidding for Jake's services, and if Shields loses the fight to Henderson forget it, he's UFC bound.
It's good for Jake that White feels the way he does about the Henderson fight, because it won't be held against him in negotiations should he lose to Henderson. I think it's almost a foregone conclusion, especially with White's comments here, that Jake Shields will fight in the UFC. It has made sense for a long time, and with Shields himself ready to be a free agent I think it's now just a matter of time before it's Bruce Buffer and not Jimmy Lennon, Jr. calling his name in the cage.
[Dana White photo by Wade Keller (c) MMATorch.com]
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Jamie Penick, editor-in-chief
(mmatorcheditor@gmail.com)
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