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Jake Shields remains one of the very best grapplers in all of MMA. The former Strikeforce champion was a Division I wrestler and has won several high-level jiu-jitsu tournaments. Of his 30 career victories, 11 have come by way of submission.

There isn’t a whole lot Shields has not seen on the ground. Rousimar Palhares, though, is a different breed. He’s known for his incredible leglocks — and holding onto them until his opponent is screaming and pleading for him to let go.

Shields will get a shot at Palhares and the World Series of Fighting welterweight title if he is able to beat Brian Foster at WSOF 17 on Saturday in Las Vegas. The 36-year-old MMA veteran admits that proposition doesn’t sound like too much fun.

“He’s definitely done some dirty stuff,” Shields said. “He’s a scary guy. You don’t want to get into that position with him and if you do, you want to get out of there fast.”

Palhares was cut from the UFC in 2013 when he held onto Mike Pierce’s leg too long during a fight-finishing heel hook. In 2010, Palhares was suspended 90 days in New Jersey for not stopping a heel hook against Tomasz Drwal when the referee tried pulling him off.

There are multiple other instances when Palhares may have gone a little too far. Last month, Palhares beat Jon Fitch to retain his title with a kneebar that he might have held a hair too long. WSOF defended Palhares and the California State Athletic Commission did not exact any penalty. Shields almost defends him in this case.

“It’s borderline,” he said. “I think he just goes at them so viciously and so hard that it ends up popping. And he doesn’t stop until the referee stops him. It’s definitely borderline. There’s been a couple of them where he’s definitely been dirty, especially in his submission matches.

“I do think he holds on too long. But I think maybe people have criticized him where he hasn’t. But there definitely have been a few of his fights were he definitely held on too long. The last couple he’s still been criticized for, maybe he hasn’t.”

Shields is not anti-Palhares. He doesn’t think he should be sanctioned or stripped of his belt. Nothing of the sort. In fact, the former UFC veteran can easily put himself in Palhares’ shoes. To Shields, Palhares is doing everything possible to win.

“His advantage is that he goes out there and tries to break your leg, which is terrible if you’re fighting him,” Shields said. “But it makes it a lot more realistic and a lot deadlier in a fight when a guy is trying to snap your leg and knee in half. It makes you want to tap. You can call it dirty, but it is a fight. People are trying to knock him out; he’s trying to seriously hurt you.”

Shields (30-7-1, 1 NC) has his hands full Saturday with the extremely underrated Foster, a talented kickboxer and opportunistic submission guy. A fight between Shields and Palhares, though, would be big for WSOF. It’s one of the biggest name bouts the fledgling promotion can do in 2015.

There would be much intrigue. Can Shields, the master grappler, stay away from the hulking Palhares’ frightening leg locks? Shields admits he’s never encountered anyone like the Brazilian.

“I’ve never faced a guy with leglocks that do serious damage like that,” Shields said. “He’s really good at grappling, but I’ve faced a lot of the top grapplers, so it’s nothing I’m not used to.”

TEMECULA, Calif. — Scott Coker went to Japan for New Year’s with hopes of luring Fedor Emelianenko out of retirement, among other things. Instead, he might have found another Eastern European MMA legend for Bellator MMA.

Coker said Friday night after Bellator 132 at Pechanga Resort & Casino that Bellator officials have spoken with Mirko Cro Cop about signing with the organization. Cro Cop is one of the most well-known fighters of all time, famous for his devastating head kick knockouts in PRIDE.

“We had several conversations, but I’m not sure to what extent he’s ready to come to America and fight,” Coker said. “But we’ve had some conversations.”

Cro Cop, 40, defeated Satoshi Ishii via knockout with his patented left head kick and punches in the second round of their fight at Inoki Boom-Ba-Ye 2014 on Dec. 31 in Tokyo. The Croatian superstar is the current Inoki Genome Federation champion and has won three of his last four MMA fights, all in Japan.

Coker said Bellator is “definitely” interested in bringing Cro Cop into the fold.

“If you saw how good he looked in Japan, it was pretty impressive,” Coker said. “We’re going to continue and see how things go, but these things take time sometimes. We’ll see.”

Cro Cop (30-11-2, 1 NC) also won a unanimous decision over Jarrell Miller in a Glory kickboxing match in June. Both Bellator and Glory air on Spike TV and have a good working relationship. Cro Cop remains wildly popular in the United States and across the world. The kickboxing specialist is also a former K-1 Grand Prix winner.

The former 2006 PRIDE open weight grand prix winner was cut by the UFC in 2011 after getting knocked out in three straight bouts by Roy Nelson, Brendan Schaub and Frank Mir. His lone wins in the organization were against Pat Barry, Anthony Perosh, Mostapha Al Turk and Eddie Sanchez. Cro Cop was never the same in the UFC after Gabriel Gonzaga knocked him out with a head kick in 2007.

But in many ways, Cro Cop fits in with what Bellator wants to do, which is create buzz and produce ratings. This week, the promotion signed Kimbo Slice and Coker has said he is in talks with former WWE star Alberto Del Rio. Cro Cop is far more accomplished in MMA than both of those men combined, though past his prime.

“Anyone who has been to a Kimbo Slice fight has felt a thick, electric, tension in the air,” Coker said in a statement Friday. “The man has a proven knack for evoking excitement every time he steps inside a cage and that fits perfectly with the kind of fights we aim to put together.”

The same goes for a guy like Cro Cop.

Four years ago, Brian Foster had brain surgery. At least that’s what his Wikipedia page says.

Four years ago, Brian Foster had a brain hemorrhage. At least that’s what most people think.

Foster was medically released by the UFC in 2011 when a pre-fight exam showed something on his brain. What it was, no one really knows for sure. It was assumed at the time that Foster suffered a hemorrhage. Even he said that in various interviews.

But since then, not a single test has shown up anything on Foster’s brain. And he has taken them all. Foster said he has never had brain surgery and the entire ordeal was completely blown out of proportion.

The Oklahoma native estimates he has spent somewhere between $30,000 and $50,000 of his own money for traveling, medical expenses and tests just so he can clear his name — just so he can show commissions and MMA promotions that he is healthy.

“I’ve been to the very best doctors,” Foster told MMAFighting.com. “I’ve been to countless doctors and everybody passed the one that got me suspended. Everyone after that one has been fine for the last couple years. We’ve taken the proper precautions necessary to ensure my safety and to make sure that nothing is gonna happen and I’m ready to compete.”

Foster (22-6) has fought 10 times since his UFC release, including an unsanctioned 16-man tournament in Mexico. But when he steps into the cage in the main event of World Series of Fighting 17 against Jake Shields on Saturday night in Las Vegas, it will be a culmination.

The winner will get a WSOF welterweight title shot. Shields is a big-name opponent. And all that money, all that time and all that heartache will have not been for nothing.

“It’s been one hell of a ride, man,” Foster said. “To be able to do what I’m doing now, it’s a godsend. Finally everything is coming to an end and finally I get to compete and jump back on the road I was on.”

It has been far from easy. Since his UFC release, Foster has competed for nine different organizations, including a kickboxing match with Glory in 2012. His goal was to get cleared by as many commissions as he could before tackling Nevada, which has the most respected athletic commission in combat sports.

“My fight’s not with Jake,” Foster said. “My fight was with Nevada.”

Last spring, Foster and WSOF came to an agreement. But first he would need to be cleared by the Nevada Athletic Commission (NAC). The organization flew him into Las Vegas and sent him to the highly respected Cleveland Clinic for tests.

While the information was being processed, WSOF allowed Foster to take a fight against Gilbert Smith for Titan FC in May. Foster won that bout by unanimous decision. Not long after, Foster got the good news: he would be licensed by the NAC.

“The way I think of it is, this is a chance to show the world no matter what people say and no matter what happens, don’t give up on your dreams,” Foster said. “If you feel it in your heart and you see you’re capable and people are still telling you you’re capable and people are still believing in you, don’t give up on yourself. Just keep going. Keep pushing. No matter what knocks you down, just brush it off and keep moving forward. And good things will happen in the end.”

Foster, a powerful striker and opportunistic submission artist, was well on his way during his days with the UFC. He won two in a row before being released, the latter a second-round submission victory over current welterweight contender Matt Brown in November 2010. The fact that Brown has been in title shot talks over the last year or so has fired Foster up.

“Matt Brown is f*cking top five in the world right now and I whooped his ass,” Foster said. “Not only did I whoop his ass, I finished him. He didn’t land punches on me. I did everything I wanted to do in that fight. You got guys going to f*cking decisions with this dude?”

It was Foster’s potential as a star that attracted WSOF. After Foster told promotion officials that he was fully healthy, signing him was an easy decision.

“You can wonder if this guy stayed in the UFC and never left, how high would he be?” WSOF matchmaker Ali Abdel-Aziz told MMAFighting.com. “Is he going to be in the top five making money and becoming a star?”

Foster is now training at Factory X in Englewood, Colo., with coach Marc Montoya. Joe Warren, Nate Marquardt, Neil Magny and Chris Camozzi are among his teammates. Foster would get a title shot if he beats Shields, but he also has an out clause that would let him leave WSOF for the UFC. He still has some lingering bitterness about the way he was treated by the UFC, though. And WSOF gave him a shot and treated him well when other large promotions would not.

“I’m busting my ass and breaking my back and sacrificing my time away from my family and my children and breaking my body down for what I love to do and for an organization that says they care about fighters,” Foster said. “And for me sustain an injury preparing for them for them to give me no kind of help or anything in that regard, yeah it’s kind of disturbing.”

He added: “I love the UFC. Don’t get me wrong. As much as I’m bitter about it, I love the UFC. I would be stupid to say I don’t want to play for the NFL. I think that they need to be a little more sensitive to a fighter’s dreams and aspirations. And take the politics out of sh*t like that. Do it for the benefit of the fighter, because the fighter is doing it for the benefit of you. Why’s it gotta be one-sided? For me to go back to the UFC, I think after I whoop Jake’s ass I think they’re gonna want me over there. That being said, make it lucrative for me. Make it worth my while. Not just money. I want main card spots. I want top contenders. I want what’s owed to me.”

Foster will never get those prime years back and that’s one of the reasons why he still hates talking about all of this. He wants to leave it in the past and focus on what he firmly believes is a bright future.

“It was a blemish on my f*cking MRI that they freaked out about and called it a hemorrhage,” Foster said. “It was never even that. They blew it so far out of proportion. Ever since the UFC released me, I’ve been spending my own money to ensure my safety to continue my career and accomplish my dreams.”

That battle is over now. The only ones left are inside a cage. Even if Shields beats Foster on Saturday at Planet Hollywood, Foster will be a winner. Because either way he gets to continue his career and provide for his two sons rather than burning all his savings on neurologists and brain scans.

“I think there’s something to be learned from my situation,” Foster said. “There’s something to take from it, most definitely, for other people to come.”

TEMECULA, Calif. — Georgi Karakhanyan locked in a guillotine choke on Bubba Jenkins in the first round Friday night at Bellator 132 and it was tight. So tight that Jenkins didn’t even have a chance to tap. He went unconscious.

Karakhanyan yelled to referee Herb Dean that Jenkins was out. Dean checked Jenkins, but didn’t pull Karakhanyan off for a submission win until precious seconds later.

When he did and rolled over Jenkins onto his stomach, the knocked-out fighter’s eyes rolled back in his head. It was a frightening moment considering how dangerous chokes can be.

“It was a little scary and I know Herb Dean was trying to get underneath him to look and see,” Bellator MMA president Scott Coker said. “Hindsight is 20/20, right? I thought he did the best job he could do. It was a little scary to be honest. He was clearly out.”

Karakhanyan, who earned a featherweight title shot with the victory at Pechanga Resort & Casino, said he felt Jenkins go out, but feared letting go because the rules say fighters should not until the ref intervenes.

“He was out for maybe a good 10 seconds before,” Karakhanyan said. “His whole body just dropped on me. But you can’t stop unless the ref pulls you off and I didn’t want to stop.”

While it certainly seemed like Dean, one of the most respected referees in MMA, was slow jumping in, Coker did not want to criticize.

“Herb was trying to work around him to really find out if he was 100 percent gone,” Coker said. “What I felt really good about was after they woke him up they knew exactly what to do to get Bubba Jenkins back. They took care of business.”

There was more refereeing controversy in the main event featherweight title fight between champion Patricio Freire and Daniel Straus. In the second round, Straus was docked a point for an eye poke, which came after several low blows. Freire landed a knee to the groin in the fourth round that dropped Straus and referee John McCarthy was slow breaking up the action. Freire had pounced and landed ground and pound on Straus, who was still reeling from the illegal blow. McCarthy had to physically lift Freire off Straus to separate the two men.

Freire was not docked a point and minutes later he choked Straus out to retain the title.

“That action was so fast and so furious,” Coker said. “I give John McCarthy a lot of credit for handling himself in that cage the way he did. I have no complaints with him.”