During today’s UFC Press Conference in Montreal, UFC President Dana White announced that a win for Jake Shields (25-4-1) over Martin Kampmann (17-3) would net the fighter a UFC title shot.
“If Jake Shields wins against Martin Kampmann, it’ll probably be him next (for the UFC welterweight title).”
Talk about your incentives to win? Shields has yet to make his UFC debut and already the fighter is being thrown into the mix as a top contender for the UFC welterweight title.
The current title holder, Georges St-Pierre is set to face the current #1 contender Josh Koscheck at UFC 124 in Montreal in December.
Shields was signed by the UFC this summer after being released from contract by Strikeforce. The fighter had been the defending Strikeforce middleweight champion having defeated Jason “Mayhem” Miller in November for the vacant title, and then earning a unanimous decision win over Dan Henderson in April’s Strikeforce: Nashville show. Shields is currently riding a 14 fight win streak beginning way back in 2005 at a Kage Kombat event.
White made no mention of where Kampann would stand in the welterweight division if he ended up defeating Shields. A win would certainly help his cause of earning a UFC title shot though.
Kampmann is currently on a two fight win streak having defeated Paulo Thiago at last Junes UFC 115 event, having earned a unanimous decision for the victory. Before that he submitted Jacob Volkmann in the first round of their UFC 108 bout in January of this year, and was TKO’d by Paul Daley at UFC 103 in Sept. of 2009. Otherwise, Kampmann is a 4-1 in his last five fights, having put together a 8-2 record in the UFC.
Both men will meet on the pay-per-view card of the upcoming UFC 121: Lesnar vs. Velasquez event on Oct. 23rd at the Honda Center in Anaheim, California.