A camera caught UFC president Dana White sitting next to Jake Shields at a WEC event in 2010. White leaned over, put his arm around Shields and mouthed the words: “He’s mine.”
At the time, Shields was still under contract with rival promotion Strikeforce. White’s gesture sent the mixed martial arts world into a tizzy. Shields, arguably the best fighter in the world not in the UFC, would become the hottest free agent in all of MMA.
Once signed, Shields, sporting a 15-fight winning streak, was given a welterweight title shot against the UFC’s biggest name, Georges St-Pierre, at the largest event in the company’s history.
So how did Shields go from poster boy to being reviled by fans and UFC brass alike? It has nothing to do with his won-loss record.
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In just about every other sport on the planet, the game plan is, to borrow from Al Davis, “just win, baby.” The team that gets the ring at the end of every season is the one who wins most in crunch time.
The Yankees, Lakers and Cowboys are the most popular teams in the United States because of how many titles they’ve won. Manchester United? Tiger Woods? Roger Federer? All beloved; all winners.
The correlation between winning and popularity breaks off a bit in MMA. Of course, having your hand raised at the end of the fight helps – you still have to emerge victorious to become champion. But most times it’s how you win – and even how you lose – that matters most in the UFC.
Jon Fitch was one of the best welterweight fighters in the world when the UFC cut him in February. He went 14-3-1 with the organization and had lost exactly one in a row before earning a pink slip.
Last month, the UFC released Yushin Okami, one of the top 10 middleweights in the world, because as White said on Twitter: “Our roster is packed.” Okami was 13-5 with the UFC and also lost just one in a row.
“It was the same thing when we were talking about (Fitch),” White told reporters last month. “You have to look at a guy. Yushin Okami’s been there forever, and I’ve said many times I have nothing but respect for Yushin Okami. I think he’s one of the best Japanese fighters ever. But a guy gets to a point where he becomes the gatekeeper, and they start to go on a skid.”
The real reason both men were expunged? They’re not terribly exciting fighters. You aren’t likely to see either one of them – Fitch a wrestler and Okami a clinch grappler – with a highlight reel knockout when you’re flipping channels late at night. It’s hard to put together a TV promo for either one since they’re far more suffocating than they are violent.
Yet they win – more than a vast majority of UFC fighters, even ones who manage to stay employed. Heavyweight KO artist Pat Barry is 5-6 in the UFC and his spot on the packed roster seems pretty secure.
Shields, though, could become the next casualty if he loses to Demian Maia on Wednesday night in Brazil (7 p.m., Fox Sports 1). Never mind that he’s lost twice since 2004 – to St-Pierre and Jake Ellenberger, just days after his father’s death.
“I don’t think what [the UFC] does is a sport,” Fitch told The Post in June. “Fighters are pawns in their game. They have their plan that they want to go through because they think that plan is gonna make money and they’re gonna do whatever they can to make sure that happens.”
The closest sport to MMA is boxing and, though its records and titles are convoluted, it still places a heavy premium on actually winning. Floyd Mayweather has become one of the richest athletes in the world despite a technical, defensive style that is not pleasing to the eyes of most casual boxing fans. Other than a bizarre finish of Victor Ortiz, Mayweather has exactly one knockout (Ricky Hatton) in the last five years.
St-Pierre is comparable. His game plan is to outpoint his opponents. But he and Mayweather also have something else in common: uncanny marketability. Call it the “it” factor.
But where is the line between success and failure? Can you actually win in the UFC and still be sent out to pasture?
“You’re trying to be the best in the world,” Fitch said. “You’re trying to win fights, trying to be a pro athlete — not a professional wrestler or an actor.”
Of course, with a pay-per-view centric business model, unlike any other sports league, the UFC would be hard pressed to get fans to plunk down $55 a month if every fighter was like Fitch, Okami and Shields. The lines are somewhat blurred between entertainment and sport.
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it’s a reality Shields understands.
He’s had his shot against St-Pierre, he’s seen the fates of Okami and Fitch. The Californian’s 16-2-1 record in his last 19 fights gleams, but he hasn’t finished an opponent in more than four years. His last knockout came in 2007.
Shields says the criticisms bother him “a little bit.”
“Ultimately, you have to go out there and win,” Shields said. “That’s what you’re there for.”
Maia, a Brazilian jiu-jitsu black belt, presents a difficult challenge for Shields, whose forte is also ground fighting. Shields, an accomplished wrestler and jiu-jitsu practitioner, might not be able tie up Maia like he has done to past opponents.
But Shields isn’t just looking to defeat the Brazilian on Wednesday night. He wants to win “in dominant fashion.”
“I want to finish Maia,” Shields said. “I’d love to submit Maia. … It’s a huge fight. I want to make a statement.”
If Shields wins, he would likely save his job. But if he wins a slow, plodding fight, where would he go from there?
It has been a tough two years for Shields. His father, Jack, died in 2011, less than a month before his loss to Ellenberger. Jack was Shields’ manager, trainer and the closest person in his life. Last year, Shields tested positive for a prohibited substance and had his win over Ed Herman overturned.
“It took me a little bit to get my head back on,” Shields said. “It took me a little while, a good year or so to get things back in order.”
If he beats Maia, Shields will be 3-0-1 in his last four UFC fights. For some, that would be enough to earn a title shot. It almost definitely won’t be that way for Shields.
“If he wins, I’m not sure where that puts him,” former UFC fighter and current Fox analyst Brian Stann admitted. “If he gets a finish? Then he’s in the conversation.”
That’s life in the fickle world of the UFC.