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Dave Meltzer: UFC should limit how much they show Jake Shields on TV and PPV
By Zach Arnold | July 19, 2010
(Tip of the cap to Keith at Cageside Seats.)
Jake Shields has a tough time attracting an audience for his fights. On the other hand, Jake is respected by a lot of people in the MMA world.
(Maybe not so much for his recent antics with Scott Coker, but not a lot of fighters have shown Scott enough respect lately.)
This is a real sport. As much as I’m sure ABC or other networks didn’t want to air New Jersey Devil NHL games when they were the masters of the ‘neutral zone trap,’ they aired the games because, hey, it’s a sport.
Dave’s pro-wrestling and business sense here is the foundation for this logic (reg. req’d to view):
“They’d better match him with a good stand-up fighter with no takedown defense or submission defense. At least then you know the match will be over quickly. If not, there is a lesson already out there about putting him on live TV.
“Honestly, the less they show of him the better. You showcase people to their strengths and hide their weaknesses. You look at that for every person and then expose them accordingly. Either a guy with no sub defense and takedown defense, or hide him on the undercards where nobody can see him except the local ticket buyers, preferably on a Vegas show where nobody shows up until late. Having people sleep through Jon Fitch fights does less to make them want to see him against GSP again. However, if they never saw those fights, and marketed a 15 fight winning streak and had people talk him up, they wouldn’t know enough to not want to see him.
“they should talk about his win streak, have other fighters talk about him, never air him on television (unless they sign Melvin Manhoef) and show him training. The thing is, GSP will get him over on promos but if people actually saw him fight, they won’t believe GSP when he talks about what a threat he is.”
It’s a very fine line here, especially with the rumors that Martin Kampmann will be Jake’s first opponent in UFC. Martin Kampmann is not a pushover and this will be a tough fight for Jake. I thought that UFC would give Jake an easier opponent to start out with at Welterweight. Is that a 50/50 fight to guess on who wins?
Topics: Media, MMA, UFC, Zach Arnold | 15 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |
Shields’ striking is an embarrassment to mma. I think Kampmann is going to knock him out.
Must be said in Jake’s defense that Strikefarce rules (no elbows on the ground) really work against top control grapplers who otherwise could do damage. Further, at 170, Shields won’t be outsized like he was at 185, and may actually be able to finish people (although I don’t think he finishes anyone near the top of the UFC 170 division).
I am always amazed at how much stock people put in recent performances.
Jake’s last eight fights below MW have resulted in eight stoppages. Plus, in his last fight, he survived a Lesnar-Carwinesque first round beating and managed to pull off one of the more improbable come from behind wins in the history of the sport. If that isn’t exciting I don’t know what is. Yet, because he didn’t get the finish, he is suddenly poison? Please.
Zuffa will turn Jake into a star, and the first step is going to be him taking down Kampmann, mounting him, and emphatically finishing him with elbows from the top.
I dont see it as 50/50. Jake should, and will, be a favorite going in. I see him winning a decision with his wrestling but it being a really good fight. I think Meltzer is off on this one. It may take more than one fight to make him into a threat to casuals but I don’t see what the issue with that is. It seems like everyone wants either immediate title shot or one after Kampmann. If it takes 2-3 fights to make him a contender in casual UFC fans eyes than do it that way.
I actually make Kampmann the slight favorite in this fight, it really depends on how he shows up to fight. Martin is a very dangerous and talented guy but he sometimes gets too sloppy and puts himself in dangerous situations when he should be more cautious. Luckily for him Shields striking sucks and as long as he works on his cardio and takedown defense he should be able to handle him like he did Paulo Thiago. But he can’t get sloppy because Jake is a grinder and if he gets a change to put him on his back and work him he will.
I certainly wouldn’t call him as boring to watch as Jon Fitch. But yeah, he is the kind of fighter UFC fans despise: a wrestler with no striking ability who never hesitates to ice a fight using wrestling.
I think he’ll beat Kampmann. Kampmann is always ify, but Shields is one of the more consistent fighters in the sport, so it’s almost a lock IMO. He’s certainly not going to stand with him for more than 20 seconds and Kampmann hardly has a fabled Liddell sprawl. But there’s no way in hell he beats GSP obviously. He’ll be a gatekeeper at best, one of those guys hated for their style the crowd loves to see them get beaten at worst.
Dave, this isn’t professional wrestling. He’s had two crappy fights in a row on TV, and that had more to do with Mayhem’s lack of TD defense and the unexpected poor performance of Henderson. Before that he finished Robbie Lawler, Paul Daley, Nick Thompson, and Mike Pyle, all quality opponents that he dominated.
I wonder what Jay Hieron is up to these days. He said no to a UFC contract because he was going to recieve a title shot from SF…
Jay Hieron will probaly fight for Strikeforce again. May even fight twice next year since that’s how his luck goes.
Everyone thought that Hendo would knockout Shields…look what happened.
Just saw the last paragraph. I actually got Jake winning Zach, but if Kampman is above +225 I will be putting down a bet on him. Who you guys got? Zach, 45, Gaij, Alan etc…
I think Shields takes this fight, he’s legit and Kampmann can be a bit of flake/inconsistent fighter. That being said, I agree with folks that (at least on paper) this fight poses some difficulties for Jake.
Kampmann has only ever lost via TKO (Shields has very little chance of doing that) and he took out Thiago, who’d been on quite a tear…but I just see Jake using his ground skills to run a clinic. Not sure if he’ll be the first guy to get a tap from him, but I think he’ll UD him.
End of the day, Dana wins again because he can say we only make our guys fight the best (no easy/showcase fights) and if Shields wins he gets a nice rub and if he loses, well he can just run down how a fringe top 10 UFC WW took out their main competitor’s champ.
I don’t get the hate on Shields. He was finishing everyone he fought in EliteXC and Strikeforce up until his last 2. And even those weren’t particularly bad. The Mayhem fight wasn’t a barn burner but had it’s moments. The Hendo fight was a pretty awesome underdog win, after getting pounded at the start.
Shields is one of my favorite fighters. Kampann is defintely good, but I think Jake can finish him.
Shields takes this by submission in the 2nd.
If Shields loose, being on UFC can be the biggest mistake his life. The preasure is over him this time.
I think the elbows can make the difference, but again the preassure is over him.
To be fair though, he had an equal amount of pressure on him against Henderson. He needed a win to get a good UFC contract. And if he lost the belief would be he’s only capable of beating second rate fighters and would get mauled against any top 5 WW or MW in the UFC. But now people see him definitely getting outclassed by GSP, but being a pretty solid gatekeeper at least.