Sherdog’s Top 10: Greatest Welterweights

6. Jake Shields

Shields was never UFC champion, but did win a belt in the now largely forgotten EliteXC. However, he had one of the sport's great runs from 2005 until his showdown in 2011 against Georges St. Pierre. He went 15-0 against a slew of great fighters, some of them even top middleweights, including Carlos Condit, Yushin Okami, Martin Kampmann (one crazy judge who had it for the Dane notwithstanding), Jason Miller and even Dan Henderson, as well as finishing Robbie Lawler, Paul Daley, Nick Thompson and Mike Pyle.

In his prime, Shields was soundly beaten by St. Pierre and then suffered a shocking 53-second knockout to Jake Ellenberger, but he wasn't done yet, recording close wins over Tyron Woodley and Demian Maia, and soundly beating Yoshihiro Akiyama. Shields was 35 at that point and would start noticeably declining, but it shouldn't distract from an outstanding run of dominance up until then. In his prime, Shields was one of the best grapplers in MMA history, seamlessly blending wrestling and grappling, with perhaps the best top control we've ever seen, Khabib Nurmagomedov included. Those who sparred with him claimed it was like having a 300 pound man on top of you, which even Olympic wrestler Dan Henderson found out the hard way. Shields' weak spot was always his striking, which is how the meme “K-1 Jake Shields” started, as it would theoretically make for a near-perfect fighter. With his legendary grappling, endless cardio and outstanding intelligence, however, Shields is still more than good enough to make this list.

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