Jake Shields lost his father and manager, Jack Shields, during this training camp leading up to his bout against Jake Ellenberger at UFC Fight Night 25 on Sept. 17 in New Orleans. Shields talks about the challenges of dealing with the loss during training and if he ever considered backing out of the fight.
Shields also shares his thoughts on the “Nick Diaz situation” and what happened with him being pulled from the UFC 137 main event against Georges St-Pierre and moved to the co-main event against B.J. Penn. Shields remains mostly in the middle ground, not really taking sides for either Diaz or the UFC, but he does say he hopes Nick learns from this, moves forward and gets another title shot.
Shields also weighs in on Diaz’s new opponent and how he thinks he will fare against “The Prodigy” and also gives his prediction on Nate Diaz’s upcoming fight against Takanori Gomi. Shields said he was a little disappointed in Ellenberger as an opponent, but also said he can’t complain too much because it is the main event. Finally, Shields says he hopes to get to fight Anderson Silva one day before he retires and talked about bringing in Chris Leben to help him train.