Jake Shields thinks he can finish Hector Lombard at UFC 171, wants title shot after

By: Jamie Penick, MMATorch Editor-in-Chief

Jake Shields has a huge fight this weekend at UFC 171 against Hector Lombard, and he's of the belief that a win move him real close to title contention in the UFC's welterweight division.

"I've gotta be close," Shields said last week in an interview with MMAJunkie.com. "I'm on a good win streak right now, and I want to go out there put Hector away and hopefully finish, which isn't an easy task. I would be the first guy to do it and get a title shot."

"I want to take him down, go for a submission, [and work] heavy ground and pound. I think if I can finish him, I can probably get a title shot. So I need to go out there and push as hard as I possibly can. Hector's a guy you can't go in and push too fast; you don't want to go in and start trading with him, because in my mind, he's quite possibly the hardest hitter in the 170-pound division."

Shields thinks he should get a shot over Carlos Condit if both of them win on Saturday night, citing Condit's losses to GSP and Johny Hendricks in two of his last three fights and saying he'd be "more deserving" of the fight. Further, he'll be coming into contract negotiations soon, and thinks a big win over Lombard is a necessity for everything he hopes to do next.

"I can't go out and lose to Hector and ask for more money, so I've got to take it one step at a time," he said. "I've got a beast standing in front of me next week."

Penick's Analysis: This is a really big fight for both Shields and Lombard, but it's not a No. 1 contender fight. The winner could move into a No. 1 contender type fight, perhaps against Rory MacDonald later in the year, but it's not a title eliminator by itself. While it's true that Condit lost to both GSP and Hendricks, he had close fights with both, and things could have been different with five rounds against Hendricks. That's what he's stuck behind, and he'll need another win to get a title fight after Lombard.

Source: http://www.mmatorch.com/artman2/publish/UFC_2/article_20608.shtml

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