Former Strikeforce champion Jake Shields comptes for the WSOF welterweight title on August 1st at WSOF 22 against champion Rousimar Palhares. Shields (37-7-1) caught up with MMAOddsBreaker on Episode 115 of The Parting Shot Podcast and discussed a variety of topics Ryan Ford claiming he had a broken arm prior to their WSOF 14 fight “First off I don’t think his arm was broken. He had pictures on there right before and right after of him hitting pads. 2 weeks later he had pictures of no cast, hitting pads. I think he was a guy just looking for excuses. Technically if he chose to fight with a broken arm that’s something he should deal with, I know I’ve fought injured and I’m not going to run out there [and say that] after I fight. Try to make excuses is kind of weak.” Treatment since competing for WSOF “They’ve kept me busy, they don’t have a really deep roster but at welterweight is their deepest weight class. With Palhares, Jon Fitch, Yushin Okami dropped down so it’s definitely their most stacked weight class. They’ve been keeping me busy and I can’t complain.” Earning this long awaited WSOF welterweight title shot “I’m just looking for fights. Obviously I want the title, but I‘ve had multiple titles, I don’t think too much about belts now. But it is nice to finally fight for the title, more importantly Palhares, you know he’s a big name. So I’m excited for it.” WSOF welterweight title fight with Rousimar Palhares “[I] actually want to go out there and not feel bad about trying to hurt him. If you make one mistake, he’s going to really hurt you. He’s not just trying to win the fight; he’s trying to inflict pain. He’s a guy you have to take that fight very seriously. I’ve definitely trained my leg locks and I’m ready to go out there and kick his ass. Ideally it would be nice to pop one of his knees. I’m definitely going to crack it as hard as I can. I obviously don’t want to get in trouble with the commission for holding onto something too long. But if I get something I’m going to try and break it.” On if Palhares past opponents have mentally broke before fighting him “I mean I think the guy is really talented with his leg locks, I’m not going to take anything away from his skill. His leg locks are some of the best in the world. Guys like Fitch are hard to tap and he went out there and put a clinic on him. I’ve been watching him and figuring out what he can do, I’m ready for it. I think the guys he fought maybe underestimated his leg locks and I’m certainly not going to do that. Competing at welterweight being 36-years old “Actually [weight cutting has] been easier, I’ve been eating good, when I’m out of training I do [a decent amount] of running to keep my weight down. I used to balloon up sometimes, but now I always stay 190lbs or below. Actually before sparring today I was 183lbs so it should be a pretty easy cut.” Fighting Ben Askren or Andrey Koreshkov “Definitely I just love getting fights. Obviously I like WSOF but I’m not stuck in an organization, I like good fights. It would be awesome to get WSOF to cross promote or something like that. Help push the sport, with the UFC being so big it would be awesome to get these shows to work together.” Potential UFC return “It’s not a goal I have, I’m not ruling it out either, I’m not going to say I’m not going to do it. But at this point I’m taking it one fight at a time. I’m older, I’m 36 but I still feel really young. I feel like actually this camp is probably the best I’ve felt in my whole career. It’s hard to say what I want to do. Right now I’m worrying about Palhares and we’ll see what next. But it’s the big show too and I think I could go out there and stand a good shot at winning the title. Of course that’s tempting but I’m not really sure if I want to go to the UFC again. Only if it was the right offer and the right situation.” UFC Reebok Deal “The sponsorship money is way down; there are a lot of problems over there. I think the UFC pushing sponsors out could actually help me. I think there are a lot of fighters really unhappy with the UFC. Guys are publically putting things out on Twitter. But I talk to fighters all the time whichever one I talk to seems unhappy about the situation. It definitely could be a backlash; UFC’s have been doing things for a while that make people be unhappy and that could be the final straw to making people want to leave.” Most Underrated Welterweight in MMA? “I think [I am] I have quite a few good wins. I only lost the one fight to Hector Lombard; I beat a lot of good guys including the UFC welterweight champion. I think a little bit but I don’t worry about it too much and just win my fights.” How this fight ends on August 1st “It’s going to end by TKO or me heel hooking him. Very unlikely [it will go to a decision] anything is possible, but I think it will be done by the second or third round.” You can follow Jake on Twitter @jakeshieldsajj and you can listen to the full audio version of this interview below on Episode 115 of The Parting Shot Podcast (18 mins in)
