MMA Profile: Jake Shields

Jake Shields is a professional fighter. He fights in the realm of mixed martial arts. He generally fights in the 170 lb division or the 185 lb division.

Jake Shields was born on January 9, 1979 in Mountain Ranch, California. He grew up near that area in the Sierra Mountains . From a very young age his parents taught him to be healthy and prepared him for a life of professional fighting. He was raised as a vegetarian and by the age of 9 he was already into wrestling.

Having started at such a young age, Shields has amassed an estimated total of over 600 matches over the course of his life in different types of wrestling events. His wrestling career continued through high school and college. During those years he competed at a high level and even finished in 2nd place at the Amateur Athletic Union National Freestyle Championships. He was an All-American wrestler in college and he was primed to fight by the time he was through with college.

His MMA career began in 1999, where he joined a kickboxing academy. After training for a short time it was clear to Shields that he wanted to pursue mixed martial arts as a profession.

Along with his kickboxing training he began to take up Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu. This is a popular form of fighting in MMA and it is very useful to be able to use against all opponents. He is a black belt in the martial art and uses that along with his wrestling to take out opponents.

Shields has spent the majority of his career in Strikeforce, a league of mixed martial arts fighting. He has beaten countless opponents in his time there and has emerged as one of the top fighters in the world. In his career he has managed to amass 25 victories while losing only 4. As was mentioned before, he is skilled in Jiu-Jitsu and wrestling. This has meant that of the majority of his fights that are ended early are decided by way of submission. In his career he has put his opponent into submission 10 times, while knocking them out 3 more times.

Recently Shields has been rumored to have the desire to take the next step in his career. It is well known that the UFC (Ultimate Fighting Championship) holds the highest level of competition available to fight in the world. Shields is starting to feel that he has grown out of the talent levels present in Strikeforce and recently he has signed a contract to take on fighters in the UFC.

He will be fighting in the welterweight division and he will have big expectations surrounding him. His manager has released statements saying the he thinks Shields is ready to take on the best fighters in the world, including the legendary Anderson Silva.

Time will tell if Shields is all that he is cracked up to be. Many great fighters enter the UFC and find that they are not quite up to that level of competition.