Jake Shields used the third anniversary of the October 7 attacks to describe them as Palestinians fighting back against their captors.
“Three years ago today the Palestinians decided to resist their captors
They have suffered immensely but now the entire world knows their and supports them
View post on XFree Palestine”
He wrote that on X on Wednesday afternoon. That is the full post, garbled second line and all. He added no caveat, no thread and no clarification.
For anyone who only knows Shields from his political posting, he was a serious fighter. He grew up near Mountain Ranch, California, started wrestling at nine, became a two-time junior college All-American at Cuesta College and wrestled a year at San Francisco State before leaving school in 2002 to train at the Cesar Gracie gym. He called his style “American Jiu-Jitsu,” and it carried him through a 15-fight win streak over six years.
That run picked up a lot of hardware. He held the Shooto welterweight title and was the last Rumble on the Rock welterweight champ. He was also the only EliteXC welterweight champion, a belt he won by submitting Nick Thompson with a guillotine. In Strikeforce he outpointed Jason Miller for the vacant middleweight title after Cung Le left to act, then defended it by unanimous decision over Dan Henderson on April 17, 2010, in Nashville.
Strikeforce released him that June. He debuted in the UFC at UFC 121 with a split decision over Martin Kampmann, which earned him a shot at Georges St-Pierre at UFC 129 in Toronto. GSP won a unanimous decision over five rounds, and the streak ended there.
After he retired, Shields moved into online political commentary and started hosting the Fight Back podcast. His Wikipedia page describes him as a right-wing political activist. The page also says he has promoted white nationalism, antisemitism including Holocaust denial, anti-LGBTQ rhetoric and conspiracy theories. Keep that record in mind when you read Wednesday’s post.
As for consequences, there aren’t many levers to pull. Shields is retired from combat sports, so no promoter can cancel a booking or pull him from a card. His feed is where he makes his noise now, and on the anniversary of a mass-casualty attack he decided to post a cheer.
