Tuesday, November 13, 2007

Who Should Jake Shields Fight?

Jake Shields - the man, the myth, the grappling stud and EliteXC welterweight star. This past weekend Shields dispatched Mike Pyle in less than a round, and further established himself as one of the top 170-pounders not fighting for the UFC. So who should Shields fight next? I can think of three East Coast badasses... 1. Eddie Alvarez: A wrestler with heavy, heavy hands, this former BodogFIGHT champ has only one chink in his armor, and that's taller, lankier opponents with accurate striking. In other words, Alvarez probably wouldn't have much of a problem with Shields. 2. Lyman Good: Insanely well-conditioned, and possessing dangerous skills both on the feet and on the ground, Good absolutely handled Mike Dolce at a recent IFL - much like Good has handled every opponent he's faced. And he'd probably handle Shields, too. 3. Chris Ligouri: Rock-solid grappling mixed with rock-solid boxing and Muay Thai. That's Ligouri, who's been in the game practically forever (he even fought in the UFC back in 2003) and has survived many a war. Ligouri will be venturing into the lightweight division at the next Ring of Combat, but win or lose, he'll always be the same scrappy welterweight who'd make Jake Shields eat leather.