Shields: Second longest. I went awhile without fighting a few years ago. I was doing a bunch of grappling after fighting at Shooto. Definitely a long layoff, a lot longer than I would’ve liked. But unfortunately I had some injuries to deal with. The important thing is I'm healthy now and ready to fight.

Question: You suffered a lower back injury?

Shields: Lower back injury, yes. I was out and wasn't able to train for three months. That was pretty depressing considering fighting is what I love to do and how I make money. I was pretty bummed out. But luckily it got better. I'm back to 100 percent and now I'm ready to fight.

Question: Jake, are you holding back in training at all?

Shields: No, I've been 100 percent. The back's not going to be an issue. I was feeling it for a while. When I tried to train, I would just get hurt again. I found a great, great doctor that's been working on my back. Even though it's healthy, I keep working with him at least once a week. Whenever I start feeling it tense up, I drive right over there and have him work on all the pain.

Question: Nick, in a lot of your fights, you've had at least a pretty decent wrestling and grappling advantage. Have you kind of tried to change your game plan more for this fight or are you pretty comfortable wherever the fight is going to go? How much have you been working on your standup so you can try to keep the fight on the feet?

Thompson: I don't think I've been working my standup any more than any other area of my game. You know, I just look at the style matchup and I think the area I have the biggest strength over Jake is standup. It's still not a huge advantage. But I think on the ground we're fairly close. Standup, we're fairly close. But I think I can maybe use my standup a little more effectively and try to control the pace of the fight that way.

Question: Jake, how do you think you match up with him as far as the standup?

Shields: I think this fight's a great matchup. I think he's got good standup. I think my standup might be a little underrated. But I think Nick definitely has a good standup and a good ground game, too. So it's not like I take him down, the fight's over. It's not like he's a standup guy with no ground. That's why I'm so excited about this fight. We both can fight anywhere. It's one of those fights; we might be standing on our feet, we might be on the ground. We're both going to be able ?? I think we're both adequate wherever the fight goes.