Former UFC title challenger Jake Shields was branded a ‘Nazi’ by another fighter, Mike Jackson, whom Shields said was a ‘racist’ in a social media standoff following a brawl at the UFC Performance Institute in Las Vegas on Friday.
A video has gone viral online showing Shields and Jackson engaging in a grappling confrontation at the UFC facility, with both subsequently accusing the other of lying when asked about the impetus for the brawl.
Per various reports, the two fighters have been squabbling on social media for quite some time and it apparently came to a head on Friday – with Jackson claiming that Shields spat in his face twice, and Shields alleging that Jackson threw a punch at him after challenging him to a fight.
Jackson later told MMA Fighting that Shields has been banned from the UFC Performance Institute as a result of the exchange, and that he plans to launch legal proceedings against him.
“We’re in a professional setting,” Jackson said afterwards. “I didn’t really think he was going to jeopardize his role at the PI, but I guess he didn’t give a f**k about that. The fragility in him, the white nationalist in him, was like, ‘Nah.’ That’s on him.”
Shields, though, furiously rejected these charges.
“I know I shouldn’t have done that. But the guy had for months just been popping on my Twitter and calling me a Nazi, which is complete defamation.
“I do business with Jewish people, and so they’re calling me a Nazi, and people that know me know I’m not that way, but what if I didn’t know these people I was working with?
“I could lose big business deals if he’s sitting there telling people I’m a Nazi and a white supremacist. It’s such a slander. I could sue him for defamation.”
The video clip of the fight is brief but observers claim that it lasted around five minutes, with Jackson later admitting to having gouged Shields’ eyes when he couldn’t get free.
“So, of course, I f**king hit him with the [eye gouge] because I’m trying to rip his eye out now, because I’m like, bro, I didn’t ask for this,” Jackson said.
“I got in a good eye gouge because I see when he got up, he had blood on his face.”
Shields, though, said he couldn’t ignore the accusations that Jackson was hurling at him.
“It’s one thing if some dork wants to talk crap to me, I’m going to ignore it. But if a fighter is disrespecting me and calling me a Nazi and a white nationalist and thinks it’s going to be cool, it’s not.
“So I had to teach the kid a lesson. I just tossed him like the little girl he is and slapped him a few times before I got pulled off.”
Shields is a one-time title contender in the UFC, while Jackson is perhaps best known for his win against former WWE star CM Punk.
The UFC has yet to comment on the situation.