UFC
Georges St. Pierre believes UFC 129 opponent Jake Shields would beat all of his previous challengers
Apr 23, 2011 - 7:15:06 PM Georges St. Pierre believes UFC 129 opponent Jake Shields would beat all of his previous challengers

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By: Jamie Penick, MMATorch Editor-in-Chief

UFC Welterweight Champion Georges St. Pierre isn't very pleased with the almost universal writing off of his UFC 129 opponent Jake Shields, and doesn't like the lack of respect he feels his opponent is being shown ahead of their title fight in Toronto with him as a gigantic betting favorite.

"This is foolish," St. Pierre said on a pre-fight teleconference this week. "This is like a trap for me. I'm not going to fall into that trap... I'm going to tell you something about Jake Shields. When everyone thought he was going to lose to Robbie Lawler, I knew he was going to win. When everyone thought he was going to lose to Dan Henderson, I knew, I told all my friends [as] I was watching the fight, I knew he was going to win. I knew every single time Jake Shields was going into a fight as an underdog, I knew, I had a strong belief that he was going to win."

"When I talk about Jake Shields, I know the danger of the fight because I know grappling. I know what I'm [going up] against. I don't know 100 percent, but I'm going to find out how dangerous this could be. The people who make the odds don't even acknowledge the true skillset of Jake Shields, and that's something that really pisses me off. Because I have the pressure of going through Jake Shields like a knife in butter. But they don't understand the danger."

St. Pierre holds Shields in very high regard, and knows the dangers his challenger possesses in his ground game. St. Pierre has faced strikers, grapplers, wrestlers and well-rounded fighters during the last four years, a stretch in which he hasn't lost a round, but for the Champion Shields is a fighter that he believes is above the rest of that field.

"I'm going to tell you right now, I strongly believe that if I put Jake against any of the contenders that I have fought before, Jake would have won the fight," he said. "That's why this fight, when I say this fight the bar is raised higher than it's ever been before, I'm not lying about it."

The two will finally meet at the Rogers Centre in front of 55,000 fans next Saturday, live on pay-per-view.