Shields Explains Jump to Lawler

Jake Shields wants a test.

Previously scheduled to face power puncher Joe Riggs at Strikeforce’s coming-out party on April 11 at the HP Pavilion, EliteXC’s uprooted welterweight champion asked the San Jose-based promotion for a stiffer challenge.

Strikeforce answered with EliteXC’s middleweight champion Robbie Lawler, who has an established track record for dog-eared, winner-take-all wars on the feet. Shields will now face the stoic Iowan import at 185 pounds on Strikeforce’s next card in May at a yet-to-be-announced venue.

“Lawler’s a fight that really tests me and makes me be like, ‘Can I really beat this guy?” said the Brazilian jiu-jitsu black belt not yet noted for his standup game. “It’s not a fight I look at and I’m like, ‘Oh, like another win,” [where] it doesn’t motivate me to train that hard –- Looking at Lawler, I’m like, ‘Wow, I better be ready for this fight, because if I’m not, he’s going to kick me in my head or punch me and knock me out.”

In an exclusive interview with Sherdog.com, Shields (22-4-1) expounds on the pressures a top-ranked welterweight faces outside the UFC, why he felt Riggs wasn’t quite up to snuff as an opponent, and why he jumped at the chance to face the hard-nosed Lawler (16-4).