General

Strikeforce CEO Scott Coker Suggests Jake Shields Has Overvalued Himself

Jun 18, 2010, 10:06 PM UTC

Strikeforce CEO Scott Coker talks middleweight champion Jake Shields via MMA Fighting:

We continue to have dialogue with his dad, who’s his manager, and you know, Rich [Chou], who’s our matchmaker. He has a good relationship with Jake and his father, and they’ve done the numbers dance and they’ll continue to do that until Jake makes a decision. But where he is going to end up? Who really knows.
...
At the end of the day, Jake has something he feels his value is and we feel the value is in a certain area, and there’s a discrepancy there.
...
It has nothing to do with a bidding war, it has to do with, what is the value of the fighter? And the value of the fighter, to me, is based on: does he get great TV ratings? Is he a great fighter? Does he put butts in seats? And every fighter is different. Does he have that X factor to become a supersta?. So every athlete we evaluate differently, and most of the time, the fighter feels that their value is slightly higher than the promoter is willing to pay.

Coker may be right that Shields is overvaluing himself given that Jake has participated in some of the most poorly received fights of the past few years. He is, however, their best middleweight in the world that isn’t currently under contract with the UFC. Coker and Strikeforce are stuck in a situation where they’ve got to decide between paying more than they think a fighter is worth, or letting go of one of their best fighters and damaging their reputation as a “sporting” promotion.

Let’s not forget that Dana White has made no bones about the UFC’s desire to bring Shields on board, including sitting next to him at a recent event and making it clear that they were getting “chummy.” MMA Junkie has even confirmed with Dana that the promotion is negotiating with Shields: