HONOLULU, APRIL 21 — California welterweight Jake Shields (Pictures) put in a full night’s work Friday, defeating Carlos Condit (Pictures) and Yushin Okami (Pictures) to win $30,000 and the Rumble on the Rock 175-pound tournament title.
In the finals, Shields — using a fighting style designed to stifle dangerous strikers like the Albuquerque, New Mexico’s Condit — earned a unanimous decision to win a vacant belt.
Shields and Condit took very different roads to their championship bout.
Against Okami, Shields did not appear to be the cardio machine that Hawaiian fans saw defeat Dave Menne (Pictures) in January.
The Japanese semifinalist, a lanky welterweight who advanced to tonight’s action despite being knocked out in the quarterfinals (Anderson Silva (Pictures) connected with an illegal kick resulting in disqualification), denied Shields many chances to fight on the canvas, where he won the majority of his bouts.
Heading into the final period after 10 minutes of workmanlike fighting, the bout appeared even — Shields taking the first with his aggressiveness and Okami the second by defending and countering.
Exerting himself to the point of frustration, Shields uncharacteristically pulled guard in the opening minute of round three and paid for the decision when Okami delivered short punches and elbows from the top.
“He was the guy that I think was the toughest guy for my style match-up coming in,” Shields said of Okami. “And it turned out to be that way.”
With two minutes remaining and his tournament hopes on the line Shields, a former SHOOTO 167-pound champion, appeared dead on his feet, offering non-threatening high kicks that did little but bounce off Okami’s long arms.
Momentarily stopping action to check a cut buried beneath the hair on Shields’ head, the Californian glanced at his corner. Gilbert Melendez (Pictures) responded by demanding he move forward.
Yet when the fight resumed Shields’ could not muster the kind of response that was asked of him, so much so that in the final 30 seconds the crowd booed what they thought was a losing fighter.
Jeers echoed the 70-percent-full Blaisdell Center Arena when Bruce Buffer announced a unanimous verdict in the American’s favor. Moments later, he amended that to a majority decision, with one judge calling it a draw, but that did little to assuage the crowd’s opinion.
“I thought I won the fight,” Shields said. “I’ll watch it again, but I thought it was a close fight.”
Condit, meanwhile, did something few thought he could: not only beat Frank Trigg (Pictures) but do it by submission from the bottom.
“I was giving 60-40 to Trigg so I wasn’t that surprised,” Shields said later.
The FIT NHB fighter, who surprised many when he needed just 17 seconds to knockout Renato Verissimo (Pictures) in the quarterfinals, used his length to give Trigg a difficult time in the guard.
After standing and connecting with his only meaningful strikes of the short bout, Trigg once again fought in the kid’s guard. Condit then slipped his left leg past the veteran and worked to lock in a triangle choke. He soon grabbed Trigg’s left arm and extended it past parallel, but the two-time challenger to Matt Hughes (Pictures)’ UFC crown did not go out on the first attempt.
Condit repositioned and locked in a tighter triangle. While extending the limb, Trigg tried countering by backing out. However this time, the wrestler was forced to tap 82 seconds after the opening bell.
“Obviously I’m not as hungry as these young kids coming through,” Trigg said afterwards.
“More than likely there’s not gonna be — the dollar amount that’s going to be offered to me to fight is not going to be there to make it worthwhile to train too hard,” he continued. “So that’s the situation I’m in right now.”
“More than likely, this will be the end of it.”
If Trigg’s star is on the decline, both Shields and Condit are headed in the other direction.
Their fight, the eleventh on the card, was a battle of will and style. Competitive in the first department, Shields owned a decided edge in the latter.
“I was ready to go out there and take it to him,” Condit said. “I thought that he was going to be fatigued, which he was, I could tell. But he gutted it out, showed a lot of heart.”
Though Condit tried to score on his feet, he had a difficult time staying there long enough to inflict any serious damage.
However, he won the finals’ first battle.
Fighting within Condit’s guard, Shields was on the receiving end of one of the striker’s sharp elbows, which opened a noticeable cut above his right eye.
Just 49 seconds into the fight referee Troy Mandaloniz (Pictures) decided to check on the gash. The respite was short-lived and soon action returned to the canvas.
Condit was also bleeding now, and Shields poured it on, nearly doing enough to warrant a 10-8 opening period. If nothing else Shields was clearly up one round to none.
The confident expression that graced Condit’s face as he entered the cage before both of tonight’s bouts was replaced by one of concern as he sat on his stool for round two. And Shields, who was dead tired just a couple hours ago, appeared refreshed and ready for more.
Moving forward Shields worked to pass, which he did to the mount after slamming Condit to the floor. Before contorting to escape a sloppy armbar, Condit briefly made it to his feet. Yet Shields refused to play in Condit’s wheelhouse, and again put the New Mexico fighter on his back.
The underdog was still very much in the bout by the time round three rolled around — never mind being down two zilch on the scorecards. But Condit simply couldn’t prevent Shields, a bad style match for just about anyone at this weight, from putting the fight where he wanted.
“He’s just a tough son of a bitch,” Condit said of Shields.
In the final period Condit started to find the range. Whether it was due to inexperience or exuberance, Condit couldn't capitalize to the point where he had Shields in serious trouble.
“I kind of made some basic tactical errors,” the runner-up said. “I think I threw some kicks that kind of overcommitted when I should have kinda maybe laid back and picked my shots. But you know what I think that goes with experience and next time I’ll learn from that.
“I was up against some tough guys and I think I did well. Not was well as I would have liked. I wanted to go all the way but, hey man, that’s just how it goes.”
In the end, after chalking up 30 minutes and 30 grand, Shields pointed to two things as the reason for his triumph:
“Heart and being the best fighter.”