Jake Shields has provided his side of the story regarding his viral altercation with Mike Jackson.
In December 2022, MMA social media communities were flooded with clips showing Shields slapping Jackson in full mount at the UFC Performance Institute. The backstory took some time to be revealed, but both parties have shared their point-of-view.
During an interview with Full Send MMA, Shields detailed how their rivalry started by saying:
“I had never heard of Mike Jackson. I post something, I don’t know what I posted, and he goes on there and calls me a nazi out of nowhere. What I posted had nothing to do with race or anything and I was just so confused… I DM’d him and was like, ‘hey, when I see you on-sight, we’re scrapping.’ He runs his mouth like, ‘yeah, I’m gonna f*ck you up.’”
Several days after the video surfaced on social media, Jackson joined MMA Junkie to discuss the situation. ‘The Truth’ said he didn’t wanna fight because of a recent face surgery, but the 37-year-old did admit to calling Shields a nazi, leading to the altercation becoming physical.
Finally ran into the bitch Mike Jackson
He quickly discovered the difference between calling people Nazis In person vs on Twitter
This racist is lucky so many people were there to save his pathetic racist ass pic.twitter.com/90luT0YjfG
— Jake Shields (@jakeshieldsajj) December 16, 2022
Jake Shields detailed his physical altercation with Mike Jackson at the UFC Performance Institute
The video of Jake Shields and Mike Jackson started with the latter being slapped on the ground. There was a lot of rising tension that wasn’t shown, leaving people with a lack of understanding about what happened. Jackson described the situation as an assault, while Shields had this to say:
“I walked into the [UFC] PI after he called me a nazi, and I told him on-sight I was gonna see him, and I’d seen this dude hitting the bag, so I’m like, oh, it’s on f**ker. I start walking towards him like it’s on, and he’s like, ‘what do you mean? what do you mean?… The dude literally runs and like hides behind a punching bag.”
Shields continued by saying:
“I’m kinda chasing him around the gym… He’s like, ‘come on dude, don’t beat me up. Don’t beat me up.’ So, I’m like alright alright, and then he goes, ‘that’s what I thought, nazi.’ That’s when I ran over, and the other guys stood back. I threw him on the ground, and that’s when the video comes in… I just started slapping him because I knew he was the kinda guy to sue.”
Shields last fought in October 2018, losing to Ray Cooper III before ending his highly-accomplished MMA career. Meanwhile, Jackson holds a pro-MMA record of 1-2 and recently got cut from the UFC after losing by a first-round knockout against Pete Rodriguez. ‘The Truth’ said he planned to press charges for the altercation at the UFC PI, but it’s unclear if anything will materialize from the legal actions.
