Return to middleweight a success for Shields

With lifelong friends and training partners in his corner San Francisco’s Jake Shields was more than ready to make his return to the middleweight division a successful one. His opponent, Ed Herman, looked to disrupt Shields’s return to a division Shields once called home.

Coming into the fight there was a lot of talk of how Jake would respond to a return to middleweight, but less about Herman’s current three-fight win streak. Herman looked to make people remember that as he controlled most of the first-round.

Herman kept Shields against the cage and foiled several standing guillotine attempts by the former Strikeforce middleweight champion. Shields, the #10 ranked Northern California MMA fighter, wasn’t quite able to fight his fight in the opening round as Herman kept it standing. But, as the fight continued that all changed.

Opening the second-round Shields was able to force Herman to the ground and show of his Brazilian jiu-jitsu skills. The BJJ black belt had a kimura attempt midway thru the second and, even though that failed, he kept Herman on his back throughout the round. Shields was able to utilize his ground and pound plus grappling to keep Herman on his back. (At this point I had it scored 19-19, but most people had it 20-18).

Going into the third and final round, both fighters needed big rounds to convince judges they won the match. However, as the final round began only Shields came out with a little extra fire.

In the thin air of Denver, both fighters looked slightly gassed but Shields was able to find extra motivation. The third round was a mirror image of the second. Shields controlled the ground attack and kept Herman on his back. It wasn’t the impressive middleweight debut that Shields had hoped for, but it left fans wanting more of Shields.

As the round, and fight, ended both fighters raised their hands in victory but would have to wait for the judges’ decision. The judges scored the fight 29-28, 30-27, 30-27, which was a unanimous decision victory for Shields.

It wasn’t the return Shields had hoped and definitely didn’t help with his title aspirations, but it was a step in the right direction for him. Now he’s riding a two-fight win streak, his longest in the UFC, and is now considered a threat in the MW division.

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