Fight Preview: Jason Miller vs. Jake Shields

Jason “Mayhem” Miller is easily one of the most recognizable faces in MMA. In between his crazy antics and scheduled fighters, Miller is busy hosting the TV show “Bully Beatdown”. Miller has fought opponents from all over the world for eight years now and has fought for promotions like the Ultimate Fighting Championships and DREAM. His fame has grown ten fold since his personality was able to be seen by all audiences, he is truly something unique when he steps into the cage. Miller is one of those fighters who will smile every time they get punched in the face and he’ll burst out in laughter at the sight of his own blood, he truly loves to fight. Miller is set to take on current Strikeforce middleweight champion, Jake Shields for said title. While Miller is easily the much more famous fighter, it is in fact Shields who has been around for longer. Shields is a ten year veteran of the sport and holds notable wins over the tough Japanese star Yushin Okami, UFC veteran Dave Menne and former EliteXC champion Robbie Lawler.

This truly is a fight of the young veterans, at 28 and 30 both men are at the peaks of their careers and are looking to further them. There is no doubt that this fight is going to the ground with both men being extremely versed in the submission department but it’s a throw up as to whole will succeed there. Shields is extremely talented when it comes to submitting his opponents when he is in the dominant position but because of his dominant wrestling ability, it has rarely been seen how well he can do when fighting off of his back in the non-advantageous position. If Miller can take him down, there is no doubt that he could very well beat him into submission, but that is much easier said than done. Chances are Miller will be the man being taken down but that could very well play into the hand of Miller who is excellent fighting off of his back. His long limbs and great flexibility allow Miller to pull off some extremely difficult moves that can help him gain the advantage or even the submission. Shields will look to use his strong wrestling to dominate Miller on the ground which is very much a possibility as Miller is known to have the greatest defense when it comes to wrestlers, so he very well could find himself on the receiving end of a one sided beat down from the champion.

If Miller wants to win, he needs to keep the fight standing, he is undoubtedly the better striker. While Shields is no slouch in said department, he isn’t the greatest around, he has a very orthodox take on striking which leaves him predictable and can end up telegraphing his strikes whereas Miller is the complete opposite. While he has all the tools to be a great striker, it is his unpredictable style which is most threatening to his opposition. If Miller can keep it standing up he could leave the fight with a decision win, don’t expect any knock outs from either man.

This fight has to go for Shields just because of his extremely strong wrestling which looks to be unstoppable, Miller needs to either defend the take downs all night and out strike shields of catch him with a submission, which doesn’t look very likely.