Former EliteXC welterweight champion Jake Shields is now officially a free agent after the collapse of his former organization.
Now 30 days after filing a breach of contract against his former employer, Shields told MMAjunkie.com that the company is in breach of contract and that he's excited to test the open market in search of a new home.
"My 30 days is up today," Shields said on Thursday. "Today I consider myself a free agent. EliteXC still has no reply, but as far as the contract goes, I'm a free agent today."
With recent wins over world-class competition in Paul Daley, Nick Thompson, Mike Pyle, Carlos Condit and Yushin Okami, among others, to his credit, Shields will certainly be in immediate demand.
"My dad manages me," Shields said. "He's just started looking around today. Obviously the UFC being the top show that I'm looking at, but I'm definitely going to look around a little bit. Hopefully I'll be signed somewhere in the next month and be fighting within two or three months."
Shields fought four times for EliteXC and has mixed feelings about the departure of the promotion.
"It kind of sucked because it was great exposure," Shields said. "People started to know me around. But [leaving EliteXC] could be a good thing, too.
"They didn't have a lot of people for me to fight. I was looking to go up a weight (class) and fight Robbie Lawler because they had no one. Now I can stay at my weight."
"I want to fight some of those guys in the UFC," Shields said. "I haven't had a chance to talk to (UFC President) Dana (White) about numbers, but it's certainly a show that I would like to be in right now and hopefully get in there and mix it up."
"It's not necessarily because it's the UFC," Shields said. "It's because that's where the fighters are. I mean the UFC is the show. I've been watching it since I was a kid. So I do want to fight there. But I just think that it's all about fighting the top fighters.
"If [UFC welterweight champion Georges St. Pierre] was in Affliction, then that's probably where I would want to go fight. I'm looking to be a top fighter, and you've got to fight the top guys to be the No. 1. That's just how it goes."
"I couldn't imagine it being more than a couple of week before I'm signed with somebody," Shields said. "Obviously it probably takes a week or two, three weeks. I don't know how long it's going to take my dad to negotiate. You've got to feel around a little bit. But I would think within a couple weeks."
And once signed, Shields insists he will be ready to go right away.
"I'm ready to fight now," Shields said. "I've been training every day. I could be ready to fight in six weeks. If I have an offer in six weeks, I'll be ready to fight in six weeks."
