TORONTO – His decision to stick to the game plan was crap. His inability or unwillingness to deviate from it was even crappier.
No, you don't have to tell Jake Shields this.
Following a UFC 129 main-event title loss to welterweight champ Georges St-Pierre – his first defeat in 16 fights and more than six years – Shields was as hard as anyone on himself.
"Obviously I'm not happy," he told MMAjunkie.com (www.mmajunkie.com) following Saturday's UFC 129 event at Toronto's Rogers Centre. "I went in there, and I came up short. Georges has great stand-up, and he kept me away. I couldn't get him down. He did a great job of stuffing my shots."
Shields failed time and time again to close the distance, get the clinch, score the takedown and implement his renowned ground game. And admittedly, his boxing skills weren't up to snuff to match the Canadian champ while standing.
It all resulted in a fairly one-sided fight. Sure, two judges scored it 48-47 (and the other 50-45), and St-Pierre's badly bloodied eye was noticeable as the fight wore on. But the champ was never in any real trouble during the 25-minute fight.
And that's what irks Shields.
"I guess I need to go back, work on my boxing, and get better," he said.
The thing is, Shields can't really blame his game plan all that much. He regrets standing and boxing with St-Pierre. But that likely only became his focus after the champ so easily stuffed his takedowns. Shields said he should have tried them more often. He also said he shouldn't have boxed with St-Pierre. But with neither aspect of the game working, he had few other strategies to turn to.
So, after the fight, the Cesar Gracie Fight Team product wasn't so much regretful over his strategy as his inability to implement one with any effectiveness. Which, obviously, was what happened with St-Pierre.
"I wanted to take him down," Shields said. "I don't know. He stuffed my first couple shots. I don't know why I started boxing him. I should have just started shooting. It's easy to look back now and be like, 'I really screwed that up.' Georges is a great fighter. He fought great. He was evasive, and I couldn't get after him. He had a great game plan."
Shields' current standing in the world's top welterweight division isn't unchartered territory. After defeating the likes of Yushin Okami, Carlos Condit, Mike Pyle, Paul Daley, Robbie Lawler, Jason "Mayhem" Miller and Dan Henderson – who naturally fight from welterweight to light heavyweight – Shields now, simply, will be known as the guy who lost to St-Pierre. Yet, he's in esteemed company with Jon Fitch, Josh Koscheck, Thiago Alves, B.J. Penn and Dan Hardy – top-ranked welterweights who also fell short in their title bids with the French-Canadian.
But it may not be the loss so much as the nature of it that could be most damaging. Fans and ticket-buyers forgive losses, but they don't always forgive boring ones.
UFC president Dana White, though, said it's the nature of the business when world-class talent collides.
"Do I wish there that were fireworks and these two were standing in the middle of the cage blasting each other?" he asked. "All that stuff is great, but it doesn't always play out that way. I know Georges will be the one who catches all this stuff that he didn't finish another fight, but Georges is fighting the absolute best guys in the world."
As for Shields, he vows to make improvements. The former Shooto, Rumble on the Rock, EliteXC and Strikeforce champion wants to learn from his mistakes. And, should the fight gods show some mercy, the 32-year-old is hopeful he'll get one more chance to claim the toughest title of all.
"Hopefully my next fight will look completely different," he said. "Hopefully before I retire, I'll get another title shot."
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