Jake Shields Won't Fight Nick Diaz If They Unify Belts

If you were looking for another teammate versus teammate bout after Jon Jones and Rashad Evans square off, think again.

Jake Shields and Nick Diaz have been training partners for a while now, and if the situation arose for them to merge the UFC and Strikeforce welterweight belts, Shields would move up a class instead of staying at 170.

Shields has no intentions of fighting Diaz, ever. Instead, they'll play the friendship card and avoid battling it out.

“Me and Nick aren’t going to fight if the belts merge,” Shields said in an interview with MMAWeekly Radio. “We’ll avoid each other. I’ll move up or he’ll move up, just like what we did in Strikeforce.”

Shields has already moved up due to his avoidance of fighting Diaz. When EliteXC was bought by Strikeforce, Shields moved up to 185 to avoid Diaz. Shields then went on to become the middleweight champion and beat Dan Henderson.

There will be no Jones/Evans situation in this camp.

“I’m not one to sit there and stir up trouble and be like ‘I’m not going to fight,’ but we’ll find ways around it. One of us will drop down or up, we’ll avoid each other,” Shields said.

“Obviously we’re not going to deadlock a weight [class], we’re the two best guys and just sit around. We’ll find away to avoid it.”

Shields thinks that the situation with him and Diaz is more a case of them being like family, and not even money or UFC gold outweighs family.

“That was the case in Strikeforce, we were both at 170,” Shields said. “That’s why I decided to jump up to 85. I’d be willing to jump up again if that’s the situation."