Why the Hate: A Defense of Jake Shields

Henderson was clearly the fan favorite going into Saturday night and that makes complete sense.  What continues to confuse me is not the appeal of Henderson, but the hatred of Jake Shields.  Henderson received a standing ovation and crowd became electric during his entrance while the complete opposite happened when Shields entered the cage.  If this was the first instance I would chalk it up to an example of booing your team's opponent.  Following that night, no one would really care about the opponent.  However, over the past few years the dislike or disrespect of Shields is nothing new and based off of Jake's track record and personality this actually surprises me.

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Performance: Yes, Jake is a one dimensional fighter with limited (understatement) stand up, but he uses his wrestling and jiu-jitsu to great effect.  In fact, Jake has won 14 straight fights and against solid competition.  Some of his 14 wins have come against Toby Imada, Yushin Okami, Carlos Condit, Mike Pyle, Nick Thompson, Paul Daley, Robbie Lawler, Jason Miller, and now Dan Henderson.  That is a pretty impressive resume for someone especially when they are not in the UFC.  Regardless if fans find him exciting, it is hard to dismiss his ability and skill set.  He just took down Dan Henderson at will and moved to side control and mount with incredible ease.

I also understand that with his last two fights he has developed a reputation as someone who does not finish.  This is not the case and it is not as if Miller and Henderson are easy to finish.  In 31 fights, Jason Miller has been submitted only once and even Jacare was unable to finish Miller.  Henderson has only been submitted three times in his career and that was essentially done by Team Black House (A. Silva and two Nogueira brothers).  Despite not finishing either fighter, Shields did completely dominate both of them.  To be fair, they were not the most exciting fights though.

These two fights should not be the indicator that Shields does not finish.  Prior to his fight with Miller, Shields had finished eight straight fights.  My best guess is that people remember the fights prior those eight and the last two, but in my opinion Shields is clearly a fighter who has improved his finishing abilities since the start of his career.

Personality: Listening to Jake speak and reading his comments over time, he is the fighter I enjoy listening to.  He floats the line of being an honest fighter who will speak truthfully, but is also respectful to many of his opponents.  For example, after Saturday he had nothing but compliments about Henderson and discussed how Saturday night was the biggest win of his career because he had beaten Dan.  He thanked Scott Coker, did not start an issue at the conference about his contract, and stated he would be willing to fight anyone put in front of him (except Diaz of course).  However, he gave an honest answer about the Miller situation and was definitely direct about the situation and his opinions of Miller (which were pretty accurate). 

He also does not turn down fights.  While he would not fight Diaz he decided to move weight classes.  He did not cluster up the top of the division and he did not turn down fights.  We previously discussed the top competition he has faced; this is even more impressive since it is out of the UFC. 

Why the disdain/disrespect: While I disagree with the opinion of many fans, I do understand where it comes from.  Shields comes off as arrogant at time, but what fighter isn't.  Also, the Miller and Henderson fights are two of his most high profile fights because they were on CBS and they are the most recent.  Plus these two decisions where not exciting fights and that is an obvious fact.  Both wins, especially the Henderson victory, were incredibly impressive, but not exciting.

In the end, I expect Shields to bounce over to the UFC and if he scores an early submission in his first fight we will see the birth of Jake Shields fans (especially with the UFC marketing push).  He will probably get one fight and then given a title shot at GSP which will in the end be huge for GSP.  Shields's striking is so poor that GSP will most likely choose to strike with Jake and regain some lost fans.  I do find it humorous because once Zuffa gets their promotional push behind Jake he will probably turn into a popular fighter.  The ability to be marketed is huge and Shields knows this (why he was disappointed with CBS/Strikeforce ads).