So yeah palhares is a dirty fighter but he is must see tv. One of the most exciting fighters and will end the fight in the blink of an eye. The worst part of this fight was not the eye gauging or the excessive hold on shield's arm, it was the pathetic stand up from Jake shields. He has no form, absolutely no power and looks like a lost puppy on his feet. Even after the fight when he had the free cheap shot on palhares, it seemed to have just ticked his face. You would think being in the game this long, shields would develop some sort of stand up but it's still continuous jabs. That's all he's got
his striking has always been horrendous, but it's strangely effective from a defensive standpoint. i was actually pretty surprised at how often palhares was landing when they were on the feet, jake usually stays out of danger better.
Is he still throwing that body kick that accomplishes nothing? The crazy thing is he beat Sexyama via striking but was getting tossed around with ease. Weird ass fight
I don't think the people who think Jake Shields' striking is horrible know as much about striking as they think they do. It's not great, but it's not nearly as bad as people think it is. Yeah, he doesn't move his head and keeps it a little far forward, yeah he moves his feet in baby-steps, and yeah he uses a limited number of techniques, but he's not trying to KO his opponents, and his striking is good for what he uses it for. He uses a jab a lot cuz' the jab-shoot is one of his favorite- and best ways to get his takedowns; he keeps his head forward to add a little power to the jab and to make it easier to shoot for a single-leg; he moves in baby-steps to keep himself in range and to save energy; he doesn't throw with power cuz', again, he's not trying to KO his opponents. I also like his jab-lead-leg-roundhouse-kick combo; he does that pretty well, and it works a lot of the time. He's also got a good jab-- he doesn't have a lot of variety with it, but he doesn't telegraph it, it's fast, straight, and he doesn't push with it. He's also got an underrated and pretty effective clinch-fighting game, unless people don't think striking in the clinch counts as striking. He's not trying to go K-1 on people or knock his opponents out; he's a grappler, and he knows what he wants to do, what he's good at and how he can get where he wants. That's not to say that working on his head-movement and maybe learning to use a hook to enter the clinch wouldn't help him, but his striking's not nearly as terrible and "Oh my God, does he even know what he's doing?!" as people think it is. It's more like people think they've got a free pass to insult something, so they take advantage of it.
Hes always had an awkward standup style with no power. He doesnt fight to strike he fights to grapple. His standup is filler.
