Torres says Shields is afraid of Silva and may struggle at 170

Jake Shields finally jumped on board with the UFC last week and has been the recipient of some criticism from several directions. Some called his fighting style boring. Others wonder why the middleweight champ from Strikeforce is fighting for his new boss at welterweight. Miguel Torres, a former champ down at 135, suggested that Shields was afraid to fight Anderson Silva."I think he's getting out of 185 because he's a little bit afraid of Anderson (Silva)," Torres said during last week's stint as a guest host on ESPN2's "MMA Live" (starts at 26:30 left mark). "Anderson's a tough guy to fight at that weight class and he's thinking St. Pierre's an easier fight."ESPN was nice enough to include me in the discussion. I disagree with Torres. Shields' biggest strength is his grappling. Takedown defense might be Silva's only weakness. So in theory St. Pierre, with his excellent MMA wrestling, is actually a more difficult challenge for Shields. Shields explained to MMAWeekly Radio that it was simply a case of looking at the quickest path to a title shot (video below). "Obviously if I'm close to getting a title shot it's a huge factor," Shields
commented about his weight class choice. "I'm not really sure if this is going
to be a number one contender's fight or not, it hasn’t been mentioned to me, but
there's a good chance if I go out there and look really good doing it, it's
definitely a possibility." He might be right. If GSP beats Koscheck, the UFC may be looking for a fresh face to step up. That could be the winner of Shields and his opponent at UFC 121 in October, Martin Kampmann.Torres also didn't the like the choice because he believes Shields is now a natural middleweight."I think it might be too much of a weight cut," Torres said on MMA Live. Sometimes trying to cut that it's a little bit too much for you and I think Shields is going to find out right off the bat. He'a a great wrestler but at that weight class, cutting that weight is going to be rough," said Torres.
By the numbers, Shields is far from a natural middleweight. Sure, he looked physically big enough when he faced guys like Robbie Lawler and Dan Henderson, but he told MMA Weekly he's at 195 right now. Most of UFC middleweights are much bigger walking around 205-220 pounds. mma fight mma training anderson silva chuck liddell