Exclusive: Mike Jackson details UFC PI altercation with Jake Shields ahead of his fight with legend Pat Miletich
Mike Jackson shared his side of the incident between him and former Strikeforce middleweight champion Jake Shields at the UFC Performance Institute last year.
Jackson, who fight fans likely remember as the man who fought wrestling superstar CM Punk at UFC 225 in 2018, will make his return to the cage on October 14 for a clash with MMA pioneer Pat Miletich. The pair will square off under the Caged Aggression MMA banner in Davenport, Iowa.
But first, Jackson sat down with Danny Podolsky in an exclusive LowKick MMA interview to share his side of an incident that occurred between himself and Shields at the UFC PI in December 2022 and how exactly their rivalry began.
“Jake Shields said some wild f*cking sh*t on Twitter. I questioned him like, ‘Yo, why are you saying’… If you go to his Twitter feed, he doesn’t even hide it,” Jackson said. “He’s openly and blatantly hosting white nationalists and his beliefs, whether it’s for engagement or not. So I questioned him about it and he’s like, ‘Yo, let’s fight.’ I’m not trying to fight you. I’m just trying to figure out why you’re talking the way you’re talking. ‘No, let’s fight.’ Alright, if you want to fight, come to Houston and put on some boxing gloves. I’m not fighting Jake Shields in MMA. That doesn’t make any sense.
“You wanna box, let’s box. ‘You’re a f*cking p*ssy, blah, blah, blah.’ Look, these are the terms. You want to fight me? These are the terms and he brushes that off.”
Jackson Says That He Tried to Leave Peacefully Before Shields Grabbed Him From Behind and Dragged Him to the Floor
After their altercation online, the two men just happened to be at the UFC PI in Las Vegas. It was there that Shields, backed up by a group of individuals, confronted Mike Jackson moments before things got physical.
“Fast forward to the PI, I just had to fight. I was recovering from surgery and trying to get a workout in,” Jackson continued. “I’m gonna say it was a coincidence. I don’t think he knew… I wasn’t posting that I was there. He comes up, he sees me, and he’s like, ‘Racist Mike Jackson!’ I’m like, cool. I’m gonna get back to my workout. You gonna come here and do what you have to do. I’m gonna do what I’m doing.
“Essentially, he prevents me from working out. He spits on me and again, I’m not… I got my gloves on. I’m not trying to fight this dude because if I still off on Jake in that moment… Again, I’m recovering from face surgery. If I still off on him, then it’s going to be a fight and he has every right to fight back if I hit him. So I don’t hit this dude, and then I start looking around and he has like six guys. He essentially has backup. I’m by myself. I know what street fights and gang attacks look like.
“I’m trying to avoid it. He kept egging it on. I’m not fighting you. I don’t know why you think I’m fighting you, particularly at the PI. There are cameras everywhere. So I’m finally trying to grab my stuff and he grabs me from behind and pulls me down. It was so slow I was like, ‘Wait, what’s happening here?’ He’s on top of me and I cover up because I gotta protect my face.”
It wasn’t until Jake Shields posted a video of the incident on social media that Jackson decided to press charges. After failing to show up for an arraignment in September, Shields was charged with misdemeanor battery, and a bench warrant was issued. Thus far, Shields has not been taken into custody nor has he turned himself in.
“Jake Shields is a nazi piece of sh*t and a coward,” Jackson added. “He’s an opportunist. He’s a try-hard. He’s only doing this because no one likes him and he needs attention in his life and that’s what all of this is about for him. He craves attention. He feels he’s out of the spotlight now and this is his way to stay relevant. By being a white nationalist on social media. But there are consequences for actions.”
