Joseph Benavidez has given up his promising modeling career in order to get ready for UFC on FX 2. (photo: Maggie Krol/MMADieHards.com)

UFC welterweight Jake Shields (Photo courtesy of Strikeforce)

After consecutive losses for the first time in his career, Jake Shields has to make some changes, but his family at Caesar Gracie Jiu-Jitsu is not one of them.

Looking to get things back on track, Shields (twitter: @jakeshieldsajj) will be making the trip back to Japan to face Yoshihiro Akiyama at UFC 144.  Shields is looking dominate Akiyama, yet avoid his Japanese opponent’s most superior martial art.

“This is the best that I’ve felt right now,” Shields told Hector Castro and Michael Steczkowski on Darce Side Radio on the MMA DieHards Radio Network.  “Of course, I’m going to be trying to avoid his Judo; I’m obviously not going to go and try to play Judo with him because that’s his strong point.  Training is going great and I hope I can just finish up this last week and go out there and fight like I’ve been training because I feel amazing right now.”

The former Strikeforce middleweight champion garnered one of the longest winning streaks in MMA-  15 consecutive victories- until he ran into George St- Pierre at UFC 129; losing via unanimous decision.  Feeling that he lost the fight due to lack of early aggression, Shield intends on not making the same mistake again and using it as a strategy against Akiyama.

“If you watch him, he has had problems with guys that put pressure on him too fast, so I’m going to go out there and put a lot of pressure to try and break him.” Shields said.  “You never know, the drop in weight might be good for him and he’ll show up in a lot better shape, but I’m going to go out there, fight as hard as I can and hope to get him tired and submit him.”

Almost half of his victories are evidence of his submission prowess, yet Shields hasn’t tapped an opponent since 2009.  Wanting to enforce his strengths, the Caesar Gracie teammate knows what he has been missing.

“I’ve been working a lot on my takedowns and going back to wrestling,” said Shields.  “Because if you can’t take a guy down; you’re not going to get the submission.  As you know with the GSP fight, I was never able to get him down and that was part of the frustration.  I went back to my roots of wrestling because I want to go out there, shoot and take him down for the submission.”

Shields’ bout at UFC 144 will mark the fifth time that he competes in the Land of the Rising Sun, but he has not been on the stage there in almost eight years.  Confident that he still has a fan base in Japan, the California native feels that he isn’t too much of an underdog in Akiyama’s backyard.

“Japanese fans aren’t hostile,” Shields said.  “I’m sure that Akiyama will be the favorite, but I have some fans out there.  As for Akiyama, some people don’t love him as well because he’s got kind of a bad rap and he’s been caught cheating several times. So who knows, I’m sure that I’ll have a good amount of fans there, as well.”

Travelling half way around the world to fight is one thing, but travelling to train is another.  Even though there has been a bit of a media spectacle surrounding training partner and friend Nick Diaz lately, there are no plans on change in the camp.

“I’ve done a little bit of travelling for my camp, but I do all my training here at Caesar Gracie’s and that is the way that it’s going to stay,” Shields confessed. “I still train with all the guys all the time and I don’t think that anything is going to change with Nick.  I think that Nick needs to get away from the sport for a little bit, but he is still in there helping us train.”

Diaz suffered a controversial decision loss that saw him claiming retirement following the main event at UFC 143.  While no one is exactly sure what is going on in the mind of Diaz, Shields did shed a light of hope of a return; with his help.

“Nick is honestly a great guy and one of the best and most loyal friends I’ve ever had,” Shields said.  “He has a bad rap for being a punk, but he’s not.   In his mind, he said that he might be retiring, but I certainly hope that he doesn’t.  I love watching him fight, he is a good friend of mine, but from a fans’ point of view he is one of my favorite fighters to watch fight.

“I hope he decides to come back and I think that he will.  He is still going to be in the gym helping out and I think that is what is going to make him start loving it again and make him want to get back in there and fight.”

When losing is not an option, Shields replants his roots in order to grow again.

CLICK TO CHAT DURING THE LIVE BROADCAST

Ever been smacked in the face with awesomesauce? No? Well guess what? It’s about to happen. Tonight’s edition of MMA Beatdown Radio is so star-studded, there really aren’t words for it. You’d have to invent a new word to describe it. And we her at the DieHards Radio Network aren’t in the business of inventing words. We’re in the business of producing awesomesauce for your ears every Tuesday night.

This week, Mike, Alex and Amy are joined by three of the biggest names in mixed martial arts, even though one of them is in the sport’s smallest weight class. Demetrious “Mighty Mouse” Johnson, Thiago “Pit Bull” Alves” and Muhammed “King Mo” Lawal all stop by the show to get you clued in on what’s new with them.

Johnson is about to take his lightning-fast game Down Under, and into the flyweight division for the first time, to boot. After a unanimous decision loss to bantamweight champ Dominick Cruz in October, Johnson is dropping to 125 pounds and is one of four fighters getting read to duke it out in Sydney next week for a chance at the UFC’s first flyweight belt.

DJ will be joined in Australia by Alves, who headlines the UFC on FX show when he meets fellow welterweight contender Martin Kampmann. It’s been a bit of an up-and-down stretch for the American Top Team standout, but he’ll talk about getting back on track with a first-round submission at UFC 138 in November and his thoughts on Kampmann – whose two losses in his last five fights have been highly controversial decisions that many believe he won.

And King Mo catches up with Amy about his recent positive test, his upcoming commission hearing in Nevada and a potentially life-threatening staph infection that had him in the hospital – and why it just plain sucks to travel with all the antibiotics he’s on to beat the thing back.

The show streams live here at MMADiehards.com at 8:30 p.m. Eastern, 5:30 Pacific. Can’t be here with us live? Well, you’re not going to be quite as cool as the kids who ARE here live. But you can get back in our good graces on the flipside. The show will be available on demand RIGHT HERE after the completion of the broadcast or as a download at iTunes.

Bart Palaszewski (Photo courtesy of mma.re.pl)

With 50 professional fights behind him, Bart “Bartimus” Palaszewski is looking forward to bigger accomplishments with the UFC.

Having a fight career that has lasted ten years to date, Palaszewski (twitter: @Bartimus7) has  faced some of the biggest names in the industry while fighting for organizations, such as, the IFL, WEC and now the UFC.

On Saturday Feb. 26, the Team Curran journeyman leaves American soil to face Japanese grappler, Hatsu Hioki at UFC 144 in Japan.

Laying the course for this bout was Palaszewski’s maiden voyage with the UFC against Tyson Griffin at UFC 137. “Bartimus” was believed to be a firm underdog against the UFC vet, but ended up taking out Griffin via knockout midway through the first round.

It didn’t take long before Palaszewski was asking for his next fight.

“For every fight we make a bit of a list,” Palaszewski said to Darce Side Radio on the MMA DieHards Radio Network.  “For guys you can fight to build you back up and fights that you deserve.  Obviously, when you win, I have a list of fights that will help me move up the ladder and Hatsu Hioki is next on the list.  It’s a fight that I wanted and literally, I was waiting to get stitched up by the doctor and I saw Sean Shelby walking and I said to him, ‘I want that fight man,’ and I got on my manager as well and said to get on it because that is at the top of the list.”

Getting what he asked for, Palaszewski now faces Hioki, the current Sengoku lightweight and featherweight champion.  Taking over 30 fights himself, over ten years, Hioki is not new to the fight game.

However, there is one thing both fighters will have to get used to; more exposure.

“It’s awesome,” Palaszewski confessed.  “It’s going to be an honor to be on the card, even though people are saying that I belong on the main card; which, F.Y.I., I just got moved to the pay per view.  Obviously, I would love to be on T.V. for more exposure, but I was just honored to be on this card, it’s going to be crazy.”

While the card placement will be new for Palaszewski, the training will not.  With the Polish born American spending most of his time with Team Curran, only subtle changes are required to prepare “Bartimus” for battle.

“I haven’t done anything too different other than bring in some new bodies,” Palaszewski admitted.  “We brought in wrestlers to help because that has always been my Achilles heel, so I always want to work my wrestling.  I also brought in tall strikers to help with my striking and closing the gap and we also have a ton of grapplers who aren’t even MMA fighters – just straight jiu-jitsu guys.  I’m not going against white-belts either; I’m going against guys that have 10 to 15 years of jiu-jitsu.”

Standing at 5’ 11”, Hatsu has a two-inch height advantage and knowing that his newest opponent also wears a black-belt in Brazilian jiu-jitsu, Palaszewski sees other advantages in having the taller fighters aboard in his camp.

“I’m sticking to guys that are taller and little bit lankier with good flexibility,” said Palaszewski.  “It’s all those guys with the long legs that are a pain in the ass”

With a lot of the veteran mixed martial artists taking a more scenic route before reaching the premier show, a lot of the newer fighters lack the basic old school attributes that veterans possess.  A solid work ethic, combined with love for the sport is what kept Palaszewski fighting, even when it wasn’t economically feasible.

Now that the debts have been paid and Palaszewski has his spot in the stable, a firm base has been constructed for the next phase of his career.

”Even though I have a ton of fights,” Palaszewski said.  “I’m still young and love to go out there and fight, especially now that I’m on the right track.  I took the long road here to the UFC, but my foundation is built and it’s strong; now it’s time to build a house.”

Up until his last bout against Griffin, there was one battle that stuck out in the mind of Palaszewski in which he felt was the biggest accomplishment of his career.  Being a member of the Silverbacks in the now defunct IFL, Palaszewski defeated Ryan Shultz via knockout to help his team win the ILF championships in 2006.

“That was definitely the biggest accomplishment of my career,” said Palaszewski. “But coming out for my last fight in the UFC and that fight being my debut, it was amazing.  That last fight took the number one spot, but from now on, every fight in the UFC is going to be the biggest fight of my life and the proudest moments of my career.”

Frankie Edgar (photo: Maggie Krol/MMADieHards.com)

UFC lightweight champion Frankie Edgar sits down with MMADieHards.com to discuss his upcoming matchup against Benson Henderson at UFC 144 in Tokyo, Japan.