Demian Maia Open To Fight With Jake Shields

Source: Tatame

Jake Shields has had a rough go in the UFC's welterweight division since signing with the promotion. Now, Eduardo Alfonso, the manager for Demian Maia, wants to see Shields enter the middleweight division and face his fighter.

"It's a personal desire, but I guess it'd be a good fight, an interesting challenge for Demian," said Alfonso, in a recent interview with Tatame.com. "For his record and skills as a fighter, I'm guessing it'd be interesting."

Shields competed against the likes of Jason "Mayhem" Miller and Dan Henderson while earning the Strikeforce middleweight championship. He is 1-2 in the UFC while competing at 170 pounds, defeating Martin Kampmann and falling to UFC champion Georges St-Pierre and Jake Ellenberger.

"Fighting Top-10 guys is always interesting," Alfonso said. "Since he once was a champion in Strikeforce in this weight class and has great wins over top athletes like Dan Henderson, and because he likes to fight on the ground, I believe it'd be a great match up against Demian."

Alfonso mentioned that he hopes to see Maia back in the Octagon sometime in early-2012.

Dana Becker is a staff writer for FightLine.com. He can be followed on Twitter at http://twitter.com/DanaBecker.