Former Strikeforce middleweight champ Jake Shields scored his first submission victory in over five years when he defeated Ryan Ford with a rear-naked choke Saturday in Edmonton during his promotional debut at WSOF 14.
The former UFC welterweight title contender didn’t know it at the time, but heading into the bout, he enjoyed a major advantage over Ford, one that had nothing to do with Shields bending the rules.
The 32-year-old Ford broke his ulnar (the bone opposite the radius in the forearm) in his right arm during a sparring session on Sept. 30. The injury came just 11 days before arguably the most significant fight of his career.
In this Oct. 2 video (per MMAjunkie), the Tristar Gym stalwart explained the unfortunate circumstances that prevented him from postponing his fight Saturday with Shields:
You know, I don’t have a choice but to fight. You know, it’s funny. I have the toughest challenge ahead of me on Oct. 11 against Jake Shields. And now I get thrown with another challenge: fighting him with a broken arm. We’re not in a sport where insurance is available, where if you get injured nine days, 10 days up to a fight, then you get paid. It don’t work like that. You step into the cage, you get paid. This is how I feed my wife and my two kids. I put a roof over their heads, so the only option I have is to step into the cage, put on a hell of a fight and get paid—broken arm or not.
WSOF president Ray Sefo told Sherdog on Sunday that he and his staff didn’t find out about Ford’s broken ulnar until after the fight.
Neither I nor any of my staff at World Series of Fighting had any prior knowledge of Ryan Ford’s condition until he went on the record about it after last night’s fight. Like all of the other fighters who competed last night, Ryan went through all of the steps necessary to receive clearance by the athletic commission to fight. Had we been aware that Ryan was suffering from an arm injury, we would have immediately pulled the plug on his matchup with Jake Shields and secured another suitable opponent for Jake.
Ford fought Shields in an orthodox stance, throwing only low kicks and left hands at the 35-year-old Californian.
Just 36 seconds into the bout, Ford clipped Shields on the chin with a stiff left jab that dropped him momentarily. But in atypical fashion, the usually opportunistic Ford failed to capitalize on the knockdown and allowed Shields to regain his footing and ultimately recover.
In an impressive display of intestinal fortitude, Ford stuffed Shields’ first takedown attempt and succumbed to his second, only to pop back to his feet almost instantly.
The two exchanged knees before Ford pushed Shields up against the fence in the clinch, a move that marked the beginning of his demise.
Shields quickly established an overhook on Fords’ broken arm and used it to throw The Real Deal onto his back. And with over three minutes left in the round and having just one functional arm, Ford had little chance to escape the round without tapping.
Shields needed the better part of those three minutes to set up the finish, but at the 4:29 mark of the opening round, he slapped on a rear-naked choke to pick up his first submission since June 2009 (a guillotine choke of Robbie Lawler).
The loss snapped a six-fight winning streak for Ford that began in February 2012. Ford had finished five of his six previous opponents, including Joel Powell, who he knocked out with a front kick and punches in his promotional debut at WSOF Canada 1 in February.
Shields got released from the UFC after falling via unanimous decision to the streaking Hector Lombard at UFC 171 in March. Shields finished with a 4-3-1 mark in the UFC.
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