Jake Shields: I would love to see Gilbert Melendez and Nick Diaz in the UFC
Posted on July 7, 2010, 10:18 AM by Anton GurevichEx-Strikeforce Middleweight Champion Jake Shields declared in an interview to BJPenn.com that he would love to see his Cesar Gracie Teammates Gilbert Melendez and Jake Shields in the UFC. Jake Shields reflected on his time at Strikeforce, revealing that Scott Coker's promotion treated him "like sh*t".
Shields' contract with Strikeforce has officially expired last week, as he was released by the promotion and is no longer a Middleweight Champion. The California-native is currently 25-4-1 in his MMA career, riding an incredible 14-fight winning streak.
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tell nick to stop smokin so much and he can come
If that was really an issue in the UFC Joe Rogan would've been gone a long time ago
That makes absolutely no sense. It's got nothing to do with the UFC. The UFC doesn't control testing or regulation or reffing or judging.
yeah we would too unfourtanately as long as they are champions in strikeforce they cant get out of their contracts
As I see it - the problem is, that the UFC cuts far too many great fighters, simply because of loss records. Subsequently, most of these fighters end up in StrikeForce or some lesser show(s). If you turn of SF for example, you see a lot of people who were in the UFC or want to be in the UFC; Jake Shields, for example.
My solution - The UFC needs to become it's own competition. All those fighters that don't make it into the big show, Tier 1, go into Tier 2; another UFC; UFC Division 2.
With this, rather then cutting people, they could simply demote them and re-promote them, should they become Champs or successful (whatever the formula might be); bring them back up for one or two shows and see how they do.
As a fan of the UFC and a fan of the fighters and they are not the same thing, I am tired of seeing my favorite promoter (The UFC), constantly cutting fighters that I like, Keith Jardine is the latest example, when they could simply be demoted into a Division 2. I would also add, that this Division could act as regular programing on SPIKE, VS or God forbid, CBS.
Wouldn't it be nice - live fights every Wednesday or Saturday night...all with fighters that have been demoted or have been deemed good enough for D-2, but not D-1 (yet).
My solution to a lot of the UFC's problems would be to simply create a new tier and let that tier act as the UFC's competition; a farm system, if you will.
Just a thought.
that is what they originaly did with the wec but for some reason decided against it
they pretty much do this already with the free cards they show on Versus and Spike
@ postmortem
On this issue, I think the problem was simply branding. If they are going to do it, they need to do it under the UFC banner; just call it UFC D-2. Marketing is marketing and peons get confused; it's like they have to do some kind of a translation or conversion in their heads and it just doesn't translate.
The value is in the brand, now. Doing it under any other banner then a UFC banner (D-2 or otherwise) would be/is, in my opinion, a mistake.
How many people appreciate that Condit, for example, was/is the 170 UFC D-2 champ? They don't, because his title was/is under WEC.
I'm all for a second UFC division.
Nick would be awesome of course but I think Gilbert would get killed.
Nick Diaz would make a huge Impact this time around in The UFC.
I said it all along, Nick and Gilbert will be following Jake once their contracts close with SF. Dana himself said that Gilbert and Nick should be in the UFC.
nick has been cut from the ufc once already he'll be lucky to get a second chance
Manhoef needs to be in the UFC. Jake should sign, he's earned it, there are a lot of good fights for him in the UFC.
First Paragraph says Jake and Jake??Or am I really blazed....
You have to remember why Nick was cut though. He wasn't cut because of losses. He was cut due to his conduct outside the octagon. If you don't remember he started a fight in a hospital with Joe Riggs, he was then given his walking papers.
Considering the last time we saw Nick Diaz he was involved in another non sanctioned fight on live .t.v none the less I wouldn't imagine that gives the UFC any confidence that he's changed.
Yeah, the problem with Nick is that his always involved in shit, always in trouble with one thing or another. Nick got bailed out twice by Dana White: one for a fight in a bar (iirc) and the other one for using illegal substances (aka Cannabis). He got cut because of the fight on the hospital, it was his 3rd strike and so he was out ^^
I like Nick's style of fighting and hes one of the best. I would really like to see him back in the UFC! I guess Gilbert would be a nice addition to the UFC as well but I would rather see Overeem in the UFC, the man looks really good and it would give great match ups (against Carwin or dos Santos for instance)!