It was announced today that EliteXC Welterweight Champion Jake Shields finally has an opponent on October 4th when EliteXC returns to CBS for Saturday Night Fights. The man across the cage from Shields will be none other than Cage Rage veteran and the holder of a six fight win streak, Paul “Semtex” Daley.
The fight was confirmed by sources within EliteXC to MMANews.com.
An opponent for Shields has been speculated for a while now with John Alessio scheduled to challenge for the title but an injury forced that fight off when Alessio did not feel he would be ready in time.
Shields was feeling out an offer from Affliction to fight Matt “The Law” Lindland after Lindland's scheduled opponent for the October 3rd Affliction show, Vitor Belfort, was unable to fight due to a hand injury sustained in July.
That fight was pending EliteXC approval but the company wished to have Shields defend the title on CBS so the Lindland fight could happen at a late date according to Shields when contacted by MMANews.com.
Although Shields did confirm to us that he could possibly fight on Affliction, EliteXC VP Jared Shaw denies that the fight was ever brought to the companies attention in an interview with MMAJunkie.com.
Whatever the case may be, Shields will now defend the title against a worthy opponent in Daley. Although not the biggest name in the sport, he does have a large following and the Brit has dangerous hands could could pose problems for Shields.
Shields on the other hand has been on a tear over the last few years not losing since 2004 and going on a 10 fight win streak in that period.
