With his loss to Jake Ellenberger this past weekend, UFC welterweight Jake Shields has suffered consecutive losses for the first time in his lengthy MMA career which started in 1999. Prior to the bout with Ellenberger, Shields went the distance with Georges St. Pierre and lost unanimously via judges decision. Prior to those two losses, Shields had gone on an amazing run of 5 years without a loss while competing as both a welterweight and a middleweight.

Where does Jake Shields go from here? Let’s take a look at some of the things Shields has going against him:

  • He’s in a division in which his strengths(wrestling, submissions) may not be enough to compete with the top guys
  • He just fought for the title and got dominated for the most part. Chances of him getting another title shot are slim
  • He has virtually no fan base in regards to PPV 

Shields fought some good welterweight opponents during his 5 year undefeated run, but none of those guys were considered top level welterweights. The book on Shields has been that if you can stop him from taking you down, you have a good shot at beating him as evident by the victories by Georges St. Pierre and Jake Ellenberger. The problem that Shields faces is that the top guys in the UFC welterweight division all excel in wrestling and arguably have better standup than him. Could he beat the likes of Jon Fitch, Josh Koscheck, or Rick Story? Could he beat heavy hitters like Thiago Alves and Anthony Johnson? I’m not saying he couldn’t beat those guys, but he would definitely have his work cut out for him.

The last two bullets go hand in hand for the most part. The likelyhood of Shields getting another shot at Georges St. Pierre are pretty slim. He got beat fairly easily and nobody would be interested in seeing that rematch regardless. Just ask Jon Fitch how that works.

So where does Shields go if he’s going to have problems beating the rest of the guys in the division and isn’t anywhere close to getting another shot at the title? Does he get another top welterweight in his next matchup? Does the UFC throw him a gimmie fight to get him back on track(since he did them a favor by not pulling out of the Ellenberger fight when his dad died). Does he move back up to the UFC middleweight division and start climbing that ladder?

Whatever he decides to do, it’ll be interesting to see where Jake Shields ends up. What do you think is next for Jake Shields?

14 thoughts on “UFC reaction: Where does Jake Shields go from here?”
  1. The place he never should have left (no matter how much Dana begged him). 185.

    His body carried the extra weight well, and his speed was a lot better.

  2. So when someone loses, everyone they fought are suddenly not top level? I mean Yushin Okami, Carlos Condit, Paul Daley, Mayhem Miller and Dan Henderson aren’t top level? I’d say otherwise.

  3. He said: …”but none of those guys were considered top level welterweights.”

    He beat a lot of great fighters, but the top WWs he beat(Pyle, Daley, Condit, and Thompson) were not top tier at the time of their fights.

    He’s beaten better MWs over the past 5 years.

  4. “Shields fought some good welterweight opponents during his 5 year undefeated run, but none of those guys were considered top level welterweights.”

    When I say top level…I mean elite.

    Okami hadn’t beaten anyone top level at the time unless you are counting the bogus DQ win over Silva…Carlos Condit was 22 yrs old when he fought Shields…Daley has a puncher’s chance against anybody…but so does Kimbo Slice…Shields fought Miller and Henderson at middleweight…clearly I don’t say anything about middleweight in my statement.

    Also..don’t get confused with where fighters are NOW…compared to win Shields fought them 5 years ago…I didn’t say he fought cans…but he certainly didn’t beat elite competition either…frankly speaking…Shields could easily be 0-3 in the UFC..I thought Kampmann edged him in that close decision.

  5. […] UFC reaction: Where does Jake Shields go from here?Pro MMA NowWith his loss to Jake Ellenberger this past weekend, UFC welterweight Jake Shields has suffered consecutive losses for the first time in his lengthy MMA career which started in 1999. Prior to the bout with Ellenberger, Shields went the distance with …UFC Fight Night 25 suspensions: Jake Shields out 30 days (updated)MMAjunkie.comEllenberger turns page on 170-pound classESPN (blog)UFC Fight Night 25: Jake Shields Loses – Is Nick Diaz Next?Bloody ElbowHead Kick Legend -Bleacher Report -Heavy.comall 337 news articles » […]

  6. I agree with what you are saying, but the Condit win was pretty big. Condit had just beaten Frank Trigg who was top ten at the time, and it was the finals of that Rumble on the Rock tournament. The point remains the same, Shields dominated the welterweight division outside of the UFC when almost all the good welterweights were in the UFC.

  7. While Im not sure I would consider Jake Shields the most exciting fighter in the world – he has probably one of the single best resumes of ANY fighter in the UFC. Kelvin, thinking otherwise is quite ridiculous. He has a VERY recognizable list of accomplished names in his win list…more so than most welterweights in the UFC excluding GSP.

    He beat Okami AND Condit in ONE night. And while the fights were close (the Okami one in particular) – they were clear wins and both were highly regarded EVEN then; UFC-centric people forget that. This was in an era when the UFC did not have a monopoloy of the best fighters. And of course recently – Okami just fought for the ufc middleweight belt, and Condit is fighting for the welterweight belt. A man that beat both in one night cannot be said to NOT have fought elite fighters.

    He beat Mayhem Miller who is highly regarded. Robbie Lawler is well recognized and no slouch. He beat Daley – that despite you considering him to only have a ‘punchers’s chance’ was considered top 10 very recently. He dominated Henderson – a man who left the UFC on a 3 fight win streak and had close losses to Silva (where he won the first round) and Rampage. He even took 2 rounds from GSP.

    Diminishing his excellent history over one fight (which he should not have taken considering his best friend/father died only 2 weeks prior) is simply ridiculous.

  8. #1…I didn’t say Shields was a scrub like you seem to be implying…guess you missed what I wrote in the comments section…see below:

    “don’t get confused with where fighters are NOW…compared to win Shields fought them 5 years ago…I didn’t say he fought cans…but he certainly didn’t beat elite competition either…frankly speaking…Shields could easily be 0-3 in the UFC..I thought Kampmann edged him in that close decision.”

    1B. By your logic…Dennis Hallman should be considered an elite welterweight because he beat Matt Hughes twice years ago? Umm. No.

    #2. The entire piece was on him as a WELTERWEIGHT…so don’t mention the Miller and Henderson fights.

    #3. Paul Daley wasn’t even close to being top ten when Shields beat him…amd frankly speaking…the only good fighter Daley has beaten in the last three years is Kampmann…who basically fought with a dumb gameplan.

    #4. The GSP fight wasn’t even close

    #5. The fact of the matter is this piece isn’t talking about Shields career in the past. We are talking where does he go from here…meaning RIGHT NOW. Shields is 1-2(arguably be 0-3) in the UFC. He has no drawing power PPV wise, will likely not get another title shot, and frankly doesn’t match up well with the top welterweights currently. You can’t debate that.

  9. Shields did betterbagainst the champ than anyone else has, and his loss to Ellenberger could have a legit asterisk next to it… So I think he ‘goes’ where any other top level ww would, back into the top mix with fights against guys like Koscheck, Fitch, Penn, whoever is available …he could easily be just a few fights away from a title shot, considering he actually beat gap up a bit and won a few rounds. IMO

  10. Stupid iPad … Beat GSP up a bit, I meant. Though I think that was another example of how amazing gsp is fighting with one eye and winning!

  11. Better agains the champ how? By landing 19% of his strikes? lol…every fighter can put an asterik by there losses if they look hard enough…if he didn’t feel like he should have fought…he should have pulled out of the fight…

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