Jake Shields has officially signed with the UFC, he wrote on his Twitter on Monday afternoon. He writes that he'll face Martin Kampmann, presumably at UFC 121 in Anaheim, Calif. in October.
Shields (25-4-1 overall) was a perfect 8-0 under the banners of EliteXC and Strikeforce and retained his middleweight championship at "Strikeforce: Nashville" with a decision win against the highly-favored Dan Henderson. But Strikeforce allowed him to go into the fight without signing an extension and a week later, he was spotted on camera with UFC president Dana White at the WEC 48 pay-per-view.
Strikeforce released Shields on June 30.
Kampmann has won four of his five fights at welterweight, including a dominant decision victory against Paulo Thiago at UFC 115. By the time Shields steps into the cage in Anaheim, it will have been nearly six years since his last loss, which came to Akira Kikuchi in Shooto on Dec. 14, 2004. He has won 14 straight fights, including beating Nick Thompson to win the EliteXC welterweight championship and Jason "Mayhem" Miller to win the Strikeforce middleweight championship. He's also defeated the likes of Robbie Lawler, Paul Daley, Carlos Condit and Yushin Okami in that span.
This is quite the first matchup for Shields to come in on. Kampmann has a good all-around game and could give Shields fits. Whatever the case is, this is not a warm-up fight by any means.
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