By Chris Howie:
This Saturday, July 26th, has the potential to be a very special evening for one of the top Welterweight fighters on the planet when Jake Shields steps into the EliteXC cage to fight Nick “The Goat” Thompson for the vacant EliteXC Welterweight Championship.
In fact, although the title is vacant this will actually be the fourth time that Shields has been scheduled to fight for the belt . A serious back injury forced him out of a March fight with Drew Fickett for the title and when the fight was re-scheduled for June, a shady situation with Drew Fickett put the title fight on hold again. The first time he was scheduled to fight for the title, a contract dispute between EliteXC and Mike “Quicksand” Pyle changed the fight from a title fight to just a regular three round fight which Shields won handily in the first round.
“I feel like I am the uncrowned champ now so it will be nice to finally get that belt. It is very important for me to go out and do my job and that is win the belt.” said the highly ranked welterweight.
Many people do seem to feel that Shields is the uncrowned champ and had the back injury not forced him out of the scheduled fight with Fickett he may have been the crowned champion. After rehabbing the back he is now ready to challenge for the title again. “It's doing great you know? It hasn't bothered me for a while.” Shields said regarding his back “I haven't had any problems with it in the last few months so that has meant that training has gone really well.”
The Cesar Gracie BJJ Black Belt will look to extend his winning streak too double digits come Saturday but in his way stands journeyman fighter Nick Thompson who will look to take the gold home for himself and stop the uncrowned champ from getting to wear his crown. Thompson is no pushover, sporting a 36-9-1 record, he brings a win streak of his own in Saturdays bout going 12-0 in his last 12 fights and only losing once (to Karo Parisyan at UFC 59) in his last 21. Shields knows this could be a tough fight but feels they match up well “I think it will be a good fight. He's a good fighter and a well rounded fighter and he is good in every aspect but I think that I match up well with him. I don't think it will be an easy fight but I feel that I'm better than him in a few areas and that will be the difference.”
Shields will look to walk away a champion this Saturday and solidify his spot amongst the top Welterweights in the world, a spot he feels he is in right now “I feel like I'm one of the top three in the world right now and I feel like I could beat anyone at my weight class. I think it goes Georges St. Pierre, Jon Fitch and then me. I want to fight the best. It is also going to be cool (fighting on CBS) because that's going to mean a lot of exposure” A fight with St. Pierre is a fight that Shields has been vocal about wanting at some point in the future.
Shields is under contract with EliteXC for another year but the California native feels someday, we may see cross-promotion, “Right now I am fighting in EXC and from there we'll see where the contracts go. There may be cross promotion some day. So we'll see.”
Remember to check back to MMANews.com tomorrow night July 26th for play by play coverage of the show beginning with the prelims at 8PM EST.
