mike jackson and Jake Shields agree that their clash started on Twitter. They accuse each other of doing physical things Friday at the UFC Performance Institute.
In separate phone interviews with MMA Fighting, Jackson said Shields spat at him twice before he was ambushed by the former UFC fighter and a teammate, which led to a brief grapple fight. filmed. Shields said Jackson threw a punch at him after he challenged the UFC welterweight to a fight in the PI cage, sparking the physical showdown. Both accuse each other of lying about what really happened.
Jackson said that following the clash, Shields was banned from UFC PI. Because Shields released the video, he plans to file assault charges.
“We’re in a professional setting,” Jackson said. “I didn’t really think he was going to jeopardize his role at the PI, but I guess he didn’t care at all. The fragility in him, the white nationalist in him, it was like “No”. It’s on him.
Shields said he was outraged that Jackson called him a Nazi online and in person and believed his response was justified, although he admitted to being wrong about having fought in the UFC training facility.
“I know I was off the mark, so hopefully I’ll sort it out with the PI,” he said. “I know I shouldn’t have done that. But the guy had just months ago popped up on my Twitter and called me a Nazi, which is total libel.
“I do business with Jews, so they call me a Nazi, and people who know me know I’m not like that, but what if I didn’t know these people I was working with? I could lose big business if he sits there telling people I’m a Nazi and a white supremacist. It is such a slander. I could sue him for defamation.
Online, Jackson said he had no problem calling Shields a Nazi and white supremacist when commenting on his Twitter posts. Shields said he took notice and contacted Jackson’s trainer to arrange a fight, wanting to settle the argument with his fists. According to Jackson, his trainer tried to defuse the situation and the fight at the gym never happened.
On Friday, Jackson said he was hitting a heavy sack at the PI when he noticed Shields and several teammates entering the room. Shields, he said, was “running his mouth, and he’s like, coming at me, and I’m like stepping aside.” Several times, Jackson said, Shields yelled, “You’re a piece of racist shit.”
“I try to keep my composure,” Jackson said. “Cool, let me finish my training.”
Shields, who was at PI to train a UFC fighter Javid Basharat, said he immediately challenged Jackson to a fight inside the PI cage. Jackson asked for a gym fight again in his hometown of Dallas, he said, and as they bickered he said, “You’re a f****** Nazi.”
“So I ran up to him, he threw a hook at me, so I grabbed him, threw him down,” Shields said. “I started slapping him like the b**** he was, and he was like, ‘Help, help.'”
The short video was a brief preview of a confrontation that lasted about five minutes, Jackson said. Before things got physical, he said Shields’ friend, MMA trainer Dewey Cooper, tried to defuse the situation downstairs on another floor. Meanwhile, he said Shields continued to hurl insults from the stairs leading to the upper floor.
Jackson said he agreed to get his things back and leave the PI. But as he did, Shields spat at him twice. Then one of Shields’ teammates pushed him from behind and Shields took him down.
“If I wanted to defend myself, I couldn’t because my back was turned,” Jackson said. “So you’re cheating a piece of shit.”
After realizing he had to defend himself, Jackson said he tried to block Shields while his coach tried to hold off Shields’ teammates. When he realizes he couldn’t beat his heavier opponent, he admits trying to gouge out Shields’ eyes.
“So of course I f****** hit him with the Dean Barrybecause I’m trying to gouge his eyes out now, because I’m like, bro, I didn’t ask that,” he said. “I got a good puncture in my eye because that I see that when he got up, he had blood on his face.”
Shields countered that he was simply scratched in the encounter.
“Fighting isn’t the internet,” he said. It’s one thing if some jerk wants to bullshit me, I’ll ignore it. But if a fighter disrespects me and calls me a Nazi and a white nationalist and thinks that’s going to be cool, it’s not. So I had to teach the child a lesson. I just touched him like the little girl he is and slapped him a few times before I got pulled out.
Jackson said he had just undergone jaw surgery for a previous injury and was not medically cleared to fight. He said his jaw was injured from the incident and a medical examination on Monday would determine if he was still injured.
“If I have any other issues with it, I don’t want the UFC to pay for it — I want Jake Shields to pay for it,” he said.
Shields scoffed at Jackson’s plans to press charges.
“It sounds like something he would do,” Shields said. He deserved what he had. He deserved much worse.
For Jackson, posting the video was a bridge too far. He hadn’t planned to bring the law into things until Shields made the interaction public. He said he was trying to defend himself after speaking out about what he said was racist behavior. Shields, meanwhile, said he was trying to do the same by countering the accusation that he is a Nazi.
The UFC has already taken extra steps to separate fighters with bad blood at UFC PI. It remains to be seen if Jackson and Shields will receive the same treatment. A request for comment to a UFC official was not immediately returned.
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