April 20, 2011 – With less than two weeks away from his UFC 129 welterweight championship showdown with Georges St. Pierre, few fans are giving challenger Jake Shields a chance to defeat Georges St. Pierre in the champion’s home turf of Toronto, Canada.
As the defending champion, GSP has only lost twice in twenty-three fights and consequently avenged those losses in convincing fashion. Throughout his career, St. Pierre has improved all facets of his game by training with the best he could find. He has fine-tuned his wrestling with the Canadian National Team, improved on his ground skills but working with names such as Renzo Gracie, Braulio Estima, and Roger Gracie, and most recently, sharpened his jab by working with Freddie Roach at the Wild Card Gym.
In defining himself as a true ‘ultimate fighter,’ St. Pierre has taken out the wrestler (Koscheck), the slugger (Hardy), the boxer (BJ Penn), the muay-thai expert (Alves), and more by utilizing a smart game plan and many times beating them their own strengths.
Now the champion is about to face yet another unique challenge in Jake Shields, a former Strikeforce and EliteXC champion who chose to enter the octagon with a singular focus on defeating St. Pierre above all other goals.
Spending the bulk of his career away from the bright lights of the octagon, many UFC fans are unfamiliar with the pedigree Jake Shields will bring with him into this title bout.
Yet (in GSP’s own words), Jake Shields may be the biggest challenge the champion has ever faced.
The Resume of Challenger Jake Shields
A member of one of the most dominant camps in all of MMA, Jake trains with fellow Strikeforce champions Nick Diaz and Gilbert Melendez, along with Gil Castillo, David Terrell, and many more at NorCal’s Cesar Gracie team. In addition, he has brought in high-caliber wrestlers like Ben Askren, Matt Lindland, and Chael Sonnen solely to help him prepare for St. Pierre’s vaunted takedowns.
A highly-decorated performer in the submission grappling world, Shields will be the biggest submission threat to date against St. Pierre. He has been wrestling since he was 9-years-old and is a two-time All-American wrestler in addition to being a Cesar Gracie black belt. He has won many accolades in the submission wrestling world, including a 3rd place finish at the ADCC in 2005. He has beaten the likes of Leo Santos, John Fitch, and Vinicius Magalhaes on the mats.
In MMA, Jake Shields has not lost in over SIX YEARS. Since 2005, he has rattled off wins against some of the world’s best, including Yushi Okami, Carlos Condit, Paul Daley, “Mayhem” Miller, Mike Pyle, Renato Verissimo, Dan Henderson, Robbie Lawler, Martin Kampmann, and many more en route to this showdown with St. Pierre, a fight he has desired for many years.
The Likely (and unlikely) Outcome
In all likelihood, this title defense could very well go the same way as past challenges thrown the champion’s way, with GSP winning convincingly, a penultimate challenge to the much-desired end all-be all super fight to determine the top fighter in the world against Anderson Silva.
or…
Jake Shields could come in and spoil that party altogether.
As Robert Burns most famously said, “the best-laid plans of mice and men / Often go awry.”
Looking at the information in front of you, what do you guys think about this fight? Does Shields have a chance to upset St. Pierre?
