Jake Shields A Free Agent After Strikeforce April 17th Event, Looking to Explore Options.

via www.jakeshields.com

MMAjunkie has the story

Shields, however, confirmed to MMAjunkie.com(www.mmajunkie.com) that his fight with Henderson is the final obligation on his current Strikeforce contract.

Not only does is he have no contracts left on his contract but there is no champions clause on his deal with Strikeforce.

He is a free agent on April 17 – whether it's his or Henderson's hand raised at the end of the night

From a promotion who is having troubles with one champion already this is just plain stupid on their part. There is a good chance that Dan Henderson will smash Shields and the champions clause won't even matter, but regardless it is bad business to have a guy who was expected to be a champion when he signed free to explore other offers. According to Jake he is very much looking forward to looking in other promotions to further his career.

"I am happy with Strikeforce," Shields said. "They've given me big fights like I asked for, so I'm happy with them. But also, I do want big fights, and of course the UFC has a lot of big fights as well.

The fact Shields brings up the UFC should be enough for some warning bells to ring in Coker and companies head. Jake has spoke endlessly about fighting GSP and wanting to prove himself.

"I wanted to be a free agent," said Shields, who's also held EliteXC and Rumble on the Rock titles during his current 13-fight win streak. "I haven't been a free agent in a couple of years, and I wanted the option of leaving Strikeforce. Not that I'm leaving Strikeforce; I just wanted the option.

"Right now, I can't really talk to other shows. It's in the contract. You can't talk any business. So I just want to be in a situation where I can look at my options and figure it out from there."

This is nothing more then face saving in my opinion. Not that i'm saying he will jump shit because who knows, but this should be a sign that he is willing to leave. Jake isnt that great at talking trash and in this case he back tracked on what he was saying.

The vibe i get from this is that Strikeforce is a great promotion that treats him well its just the the problem he has with being a big fish in a little pond. I shit on Shields a lot, the Mayhem fight had me throwing things in frustration due to his dry humping, but the guy comes to fight. Jake does not back down from any one and i respect him for that.