Shields Survives Initial Attack and Retains Title

Talk about starting with a bang.  Henderson almost finished this fight twice in the first minutes and completely dominated Shields for the first round.  It appeared as if Shields was simply surviving and we were all waiting for the inevitable Henderson KO.  Then Jake Shields showed how effective his single leg takedown is and he achieved mount in rounds 2, 3, 4, and 5.  He threw his patent pitter patter punches, but landed enough and maintained positional control to dominate.  Obviously the fans are going to come down hard on Shields (the booing during the fight was a strong sign), but once again he did what he needed to do in order to win.  He now finds himself with all the "relationship hand" when it comes to the bargaining table.  Some might consider this a boring win, but in the end it will benefit him financially.

The big story coming out of Nashville will be the three decisions.  CBS and Strikeforce wanted an exciting show and they got three decisions, two of which the casual fan would consider boring.  This is a seriousl problem, but the allure of Fedor in the future might grant them that next shot.

SBN coverage of Strikeforce: Nashville on CBS