In preparation for his upcoming bout against Jake Ellenberger at UFC Fight Night 25, Jake Shields has gone through a hard time in the past month.
The former Strikeforce middleweight champion recently lost his father—and long-time manager—Jack Shields, earlier this month.
Shields spoke to KNOXX video and said that he decided to continue training despite his father’s passing. Shields said he found his training was an outlet to cope with his death.
“It’s one of those things, I think is all you can do is move forwards in life, I’m just trying to move forwards, I think he would want me to continue fighting and doing well, so I’m going out there ready to fight,” Shields said.
While this bout might be emotional for Shields to compete in, he said he is happy with how his record so far in the UFC, and he wants to remain in the main event picture.
“I want to stay in this position,” he said.
“I think it’s really important that I go out there and win this fight and dominate. I don’t want to be on the undercard, I want to be headlining shows, so I need to go out there and show why I deserve this fight.”
During the interview, Shields goes on to discuss other topics including Nick Diaz’s current situation, and a potential middleweight bout with Anderson Silva.
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