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By Joe Hall Jake Shields recently completed his climb to the top of Shooto by submitting Ray Cooper and capturing the promotion's middleweight (167-pound) championship on July 9 in Hawaii. The bout for the vacant title brought revenge for Shields, who had dropped a majority decision to Cooper in August 2002. It also marked the culmination of Shields's undefeated run through the Shooto ranks that had begun in December 2002 with an upset win over Hayato Sakurai. FCF caught up with the new Shooto Middleweight Champion to get his thoughts on the bout, his opponents over the last two years and his Cesar Gracie teammates. FCF: Describe how the rematch against Ray Cooper played out from your perspective. Jake Shields: Basically, I came out and was trying to strike with him a little bit. I wanted to strike with him for a little while then take him down, but he ended up taking me down. I wasn't ready for that. I got caught off guard and then ended up sweeping him with a half guard sweep. He kind of scrambled back to his feet. Then I believe I took him down, passed his guard and ended up taking his back and choking him. I believe it took about three minutes. FCF: There have been some claims that you held on to the choke too long. Describe how the match ended from your view. JS: I put my head on one side and started choking him. He started tapping the mat on the other side, so I couldn't really feel what was going on. I felt that he was going out, but I couldn't feel him tapping and I didn't want any controversy. There's been several fights where someone doesn't tap or says they didn't tap and they have to restart it. I just wanted to end the fight. I didn't feel anyone tap. I stopped when I felt the ref. I mean, Cooper is somebody I have a lot of respect for, but I just wanted to finish the fight. FCF: You lost a majority decision to Cooper the first time you fought him. What made the difference this time? JS: I think I was just ready. I was in great shape. I was ready to push non-stop. My Jiu-Jitsu had gotten way, way better. Before, a lot of my fights were on two weeks notice. You can't push quite as hard on two weeks training. For the Cooper fight, I trained two months nonstop. I didn't have to hold anything back and I think that makes a huge difference. FCF: You've beaten some tough guys in the last year or two that don't necessarily have big names yet. Akira Kikuchi was one of them. What is your impression of his game? JS: Kikuchi is really good. I think he's right up there. He's phenomenal on the ground. I was really surprised with his ground (game). I didn't really know anything about him before I fought him, so I underestimated him a little bit. As soon as I got out there, I realized how hyped he was. FCF: What's so good about his ground game? Was he really tricky or fast or unorthodox? JS: It was just really basic Jiu-Jitsu. Just a really tight game. Good wrestling, just well-rounded. He has really good armbars, good passes, good takedowns. Good guard. Just an all around good, solid Jiu-Jitsu game. But with a wrestling style too. He comes from a Judo background; he has like a controlling style. FCF: How about Kazuo Misaki, who you drew with? JS: I would say he's just an all around tough brawler. Great cardio. Pretty good striker, good ground, all around. FCF: How do those two compare with Sakurai, who you beat in 2002? JS: I think they're all pretty close to the same level. They're all up there. FCF: How would your teammate Nick Diaz match up against Kikuchi? JS: I think that would be a really good grappling match, those two. I think Nick has better hands, but grappling-wise it would be very interesting. Slightly different styles but similar at the same time. FCF: You've received some criticism, Jake, for not finishing your fights and for not being especially aggressive. How do you respond to that criticism? JS: I think part of it is, I probably could have been a little more aggressive. A couple of the fights, I wasn't in the best shape. It was like two weeks notice on two of those fights. But also those guys had really good guards; Kikuchi, Sakurai and Misaki were all guys with really good guards and it was hard to open it up and pass. FCF: Are there ways you can improve your game in that regard? JS: I think I can definitely improve. I've been working harder and harder on passing. I've been working harder on opening it up with bigger and stronger strikes. And I've been working on my standup. FCF: What's next for you? Is anything lined up? JS: At this point, no. But I want to fight soon. Shooto wants me to defend the belt, but that's not for a while. Hopefully I'll do something before then, in the U.S. or Japan or wherever. FCF: How do you think Nick Diaz's UFC fight against Karo Parisyan will go? JS: It's an interesting matchup. I think Karo is not someone you want to underestimate, but I think Nick has better hands and better ground. I think Nick will end up either tapping him out or knocking him out. But I think it will be a good fight. FCF: David Terrell is a teammate that's debuting against Matt Lindland at that same UFC. From a teammate's perspective, how does Terrell match up with Lindland? JS: Dave is just awesome. It's a really tough debut fight. Matt Lindland, no doubt, he's a top UFC 185-pounder. I'd have to pick Dave to either tap him out or knock him out. I think his ground is too dangerous and he has heavy hands too. FCF: In terms of wrestling in the fight, how do you think Terrell will do with Lindland? JS: Dave's a really good wrestler. Obviously, Lindland's a silver medalist, but I wouldn't be surprised if Dave took him down at some point in the fight. |
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