Shields Easily Wins UFC 121 'Understatement of the Night' Award: 'If I was Fighting GSP I Don't Think I Would've Won'
(“They said this *was* the biggest hat they had.” PicProps: Sherdog)
Man, Jake Shields either possesses an unbelievable knack for stating the obvious or he just has an incredibly dry sense of humor. Either way, we dare you to read the following quote without having some variation of the expression “No shit, Sherlock,” flash through your mind. On the topic of his underwhelming performance against Martin Kampmann at UFC 121, Shields tells MMA Weekly: “If I was fighting GSP that night I don’t think I would have won, to be honest. I just don’t see myself beating GSP being the way I felt that night, but I also don’t feel that’s me. I feel like I can go out there and beat him still.”
Actually, there are a lot of people who don’t even think Shields beat Kampmann. The former Strikeforce middleweight champ showed up in the Octagon with a boatload of hype and – as is the fashion for big-name signees these days – came within an iffy split decision of fumbling his UFC debut. Then he went to the post-fight presser and said some shit about how he had cut 20 pounds in one day in order to make the 170-pound limit for the first time since 2008. UFC President Dana White called that “ridiculous” and “stupid,” but for some reason appears firm in his plans to have Shields next challenge for the welterweight title. Just goes to show, you never can tell what’s going to make the big man fly into one of his rages these days and what he’s just going to shrug off …
For his part, Shields has said he’ll “never do that again,” but we still haven’t come across a decent explanation of exactly why he had to cut that much weight seemingly at the last minute. According to MMA Weekly, Shields compares his sudden gas-out during the Kampmann fight to how he felt during his last professional loss, against Akira Kikuchi way back in 2004.
“It was horrible,” he said. “After the first round I sat down and I was just completely exhausted. I was like ‘oh (expletive … we’re assuming ‘shit’ …) ten minutes to go.’ I knew at that point I was just going to have to dig deep and keep fighting. I knew it was too important not to lose my UFC debut.”
Still, for a guy who’s been in the game since 1999, Shields sounds a little too mystified for our liking about why the ol’ gas tank wasn't quite as full as normal. Our guess would be that it had something to do with the monster weight cut, but Shields indicates that he felt pretty good right up until the opening bell. He’s also choosing to find the silver lining in all this, meaning he’s going to take that win and run with it.
“I actually was going five rounds and stuff (in training) with no problem,” he says. “I was in way better shape than when I fought (Dan) Henderson, and then during the fight I really didn’t feel out of shape. It’s kind of weird, but it’s one of those things. I had a poor performance and still got the win instead of a loss … I’m a little embarrassed by the whole situation, but all I can do from here is move forward and learn from my mistakes, and usually when you make a big mistake you end up getting a loss off that. I guess I made a big mistake and I was still able to get the ‘W.’”
Source: http://www.cagepotato.com/shields-easil ... &width=850
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