Strikeforce's Jake Shields to Explore Free Agency

Fighters.com second-ranked middleweight and current Strikeforce champion Jake Shields (24-4-1) will be a free agent on April 17 regardless of if he wins or loses his next fight.

That next fight will be his first title defense and comes against high profile Strikeforce import “Hendo” Dan Henderson (25-7). Typically we see organizations use the “champion clause” in contracts to keep their investments with them once they become a champion.

Shields told MMA Junkie that his fight with Hendo is in fact his final obligation on his Strikeforce contract.

This leaves him in a very unique position. When Jake appeared on MMA Gospel Radio with myself and Gary Friedman, who mentioned that he really wanted a chance to fight Fighters.com and UFC welterweight champion “Rush” Georges St. Pierre (19-2). Georges has stated that he would also welcome a fight with Shields as he feels that he is one of the best in the world.

Shields has recently been a coach on the soon to air UFC program The Ultimate Fighter 11 which leaves many to wonder if this is a step towards him heading to the UFC to get bigger fights with some of the top fighters in the world.

Obviously Jake would like to test the waters to see what he is actually worth on the open market. This could be a tool he can use to get a bigger contract with Strikeforce. The UFC can make him an offer and he could allow Strikeforce to counter if he decides he really wants to stay there.

However there are a few problems with all of this. First, he has to face Henderson before becoming a free agent and a loss would dramatically drop his stock on the market. However, even with a loss the UFC may decide to strike and make him an offer that Strikeforce just can’t match. After all, Dana White seems to love to kick Strikeforce any chance he gets and this would be a Shogun style kick if he can steal Shields.

Even more of a kick in the pants to Strikeforce would be if Shields were to beat Hendo and then leave for the UFC. This would leave them without a champion and one less fighter that they can use to promote big fights. He has been a cornerstone of many of the major cards they have put on to date.

This is without a doubt a very high risk, high reward for Shields and I know all of us will be watching to see just how this unfolds.