UFC welterweight Jake Shields (26-4-1) vows to put in a better performance for his next fight and avoid such a drastic weight cut.
Shields defeated Martin Kampmann last Saturday in the co-main event of UFC 121 and had to drop over 20 pounds the week of the fight just to make weight. In a recent interview with Mike Chiappetta, Shields talked about the win, cutting weight, and why he’d like to face Georges St-Pierre over Josh Koscheck for the UFC welterweight title.
I just felt right from the beginning, after two minutes I felt really tired. I was in great shape for the fight but for some reason, my body was not working too well out there. It’s unfortunate but I was able to tough it out and kept fighting regardless. I did some things right of course, but overall I felt I wasn’t as fast, as sharp, as explosive as I should’ve been out there.
I was about 200 pounds (when I got the call from the UFC). I had maybe eight or nine weeks before the fight. When I was fighting at 170 before, I always had my weight within 15 pounds. I’d never been that big before. And when I was fighting 185, 15 pounds was the most I’d ever veer from the weight. So 30 pounds was by far the most I’ve ever had to drop.
It was not fun. I was 20 over fight week. It’s all my fault, I let myself get that heavy. It’s stupid and not something I want to do again. But it’s a good learning experience. Whenever you make mistakes, that’s how you learn. Experience teaches you a lot. Obviously being a professional it was a stupid mistake. With how many fights I’ve had I shouldn’t make a stupid mistake like that but I did. But I got through it, and I’m going learn from it and be a lot stronger when I fight for the title.
Be sure to check out the rest of the interview with Jake Shields at MMAFighting.com.