UFC 121 Preview: Jake Shields vs Martin Kampmann
There hasn’t been a fighter in quite some time with the same amount of promise and as high a ranking to enter the Ultimate Fighting Championships from another organisation as Jake Shields. On Saturday
23 October fans get to see whether his high ranking is deserved as he gets set to take on Danish stand out Martin Kampmann at UFC 121. If he should win, he’ll likely get a title shot against the winner of the title bout between Georges St-Pierre and Josh Koscheck
Recent form
Shields’ story is quite interesting. The 31-year-old, with a record of 25-4, long fought at welterweight (170lb) outside the UFC and picked up wins over excellent fighters like Yushin Okami, Paul Daley,
and Carlos Condit, all of whom have been or are contenders in the UFC. But he eventually ran out of people to fight in that division after he signed to Strikeforce, so he jumped up to their middleweight (185lb) division. After he won their belt, he defended
it against mixed martial arts legend Dan Henderson, who was then generally ranked as the number two in the world, and in a huge upset Shields utterly dominated the last four rounds to pick up a one-sided decision, making him the number three ranked middleweight
in the world, despite that not even being his ideal weight class. He then signed to the UFC, and now has dropped back down to 170lb for his UFC 121 fight. He hasn’t lost a fight since 2005 and is on a 14-fight win streak.
Kampmann’s story is different. He’s 17-3 in his career and a 10-fight veteran in the UFC, going 8-2 in that time. A Danish kickboxing champ, he’s had good hands and feet and managed to string together
quality some wins, but had his title runs once disrupted by Nate Marquardt (at middleweight) and then by Paul Daley after he dropped down to welterweight. He’s coming off a very impressive three-round domination of Paulo Thiago in June which alerted the world
to his considerable grappling skills.
Style, odds and prediction
There’s no question about who has the advantage on the feet. Kampmann may not be the best striker in the UFC, but he’ll possess a significant advantage over Shields, whose
overall game is rudimentary. Shields can hold his hands high and throw a decent front kick to keep his opponents at bay but doesn't have
much aside from that and will want to take the fight to the ground.
There things get interesting. Shields’ wrestling is very good, with a simple reliance on leveraging his opponents to the ground rather than any kind of spectacular takedown. His submission grappling is
also excellent, and despite lacking a powerful ground and pound his guard passing abilities are top-notch, allowing him to establish positional control again and again.
But Kampmann is also very good on the ground, possessing a black belt in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu (as does Shields.) He has six wins to his credit by submission, and outgrappled Thiago, a fellow BJJ black belt.
Shields comes in as a 4/9 favourite, while Kampmann is around a 2/1 underdog.
Shields should have the slight advantage in this fight, but it’s not a sure thing by any stretch. Kampmann’s two UFC losses have come from him getting knocked out on the feet, which is something Shields
is almost completely incapable of doing. Kampmann is a very live dog in this one, and a bet on him is worth the risk that he can pull off the upset.
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