Jake Shields Wants Middleweight And Welterweight Gold

Posted by Larry Csonka on 11.02.2009

Jake Shields speaks just days before his Strikeforce Middleweight title bout with Jason Miller…



- Jake Shields was recently on MMAJunkie.com Radio, discussing fighting at middleweight and welterweight, the UFC, possibly fighting Nick Diaz and more. Here are the highlights…

On Fighting At Middleweight: "Not cutting weight is awesome," he said. "I certainly enjoy fighting at 185 more. "I've bulked up. I'm still not a true 185-pounder. But I've bulked up. During training I weigh 191 or 192 (pounds), and it kind of sticks. I don't want to go much higher."

On Fighting For The Welterweight Title: "I definitely would," he said. "Nick Diaz is my training partner, and I'm not trying to cut him off, but I would. We've never really sat and decided who wants to do what. But I definitely want to fight for both."

On Fighting Jason Miller: "It's easy to turn that off (with Miller)," Shields said. "I've fought ... other friends in the past, and Mayhem and I are kind of acquaintances and aren't really friends. We've hung out together a couple times and trained together a couple times. But it's not like we call each other and check up and see how we're both doing. We're not that close. I've got nothing bad to say about him, but I don't have a problem busting him in the face either. It's a little different with Nick Diaz. Like I said, Mayhem and I are more acquaintances. But with Nick, I've been good friends with him for eight years. ... He's more like a brother to me. It'd be too weird fighting him. He's the only guy I wouldn't fight."

On Fighting Diaz: "It would have to be so much money – more than they're willing to offer," Shields said. "It'd have to be way over than they're paying right now. I guess if they coughed up a million dollars, we'd think about it. But I doubt that's the case, but I guess you never know. The money's going up now."

On Fighting In The UFC: "The UFC obviously has (UFC welterweight champion) GSP (Georges St-Pierre), and that's a fight I would love," he said. "That'd be my ideal fight if I were with the UFC. That's a tough call right there because I really like both," he said. "Strikeforce treats me great and have been really good. They support me. I love fighting in Strikeforce. The UFC obviously is the bigger name and has some great fights. Right now, I'm taking it one fight at a time and will figure it out from there."