The sentiment that "there is no good competition for Jake Shields outside of the UFC" is officially dead and buried.  Dan Henderson announced today on ESPN MMA Live that his Strikeforce debut will be against middleweight champion Jake Shields for the title.

To immediately vault clear across the entire spectrum to the opposite side, I don't know how many questions will be answered about Shields and his MMA status should he by chance lose to Henderson.  Shields has been a piece of the top 10 rankings at welterweight, middleweight, or both for the last several years.  One could probably get away with the same statement about Henderson, except Dan has floated in between middleweight and light-heavyweight, and couldn't touch 170 pounds without discarding a major appendage or two.

The debate revolving around just how good Jake Shields is, which rages more fiercely because he's never fought in the UFC, has mostly pertained to welterweight.  I believe Shields is still highly underrated and one of the most talented, technical, and experienced ground specialists in the sport, and he's been able to get away with fighting up in weight in EliteXC and Strikeforce due to the lack of worthy challengers, but Dan Henderson is a top 3 fighter at 185 pounds, and still easily top 10-caliber at 205 pounds.

In addition to Henderson's size and history in higher weight classes, when we factor in the raw power and sheer strength that define his overwhelming style, it's very possible that Jake Shields is in over his head.  Before you label me with some unfavorable combination of curse words, I'm a devout Shields-fan and I can't even remember the last time I didn't pick him to defeat whoever he was facing.

Shields and Henderson usually can and will out-wrestle their opponents; but Shields' secondary weapon is an exemplary application of top-shelf submission grappling, where Henderson seems allergic to any type of submission, but has nine-thousand pounds of knockout power in his right hand.  Shields is not known for his stand-up skills.

This is still a highly intriguing match-up and will be sure to spawn the standard set of death threats and streetfight challenges on your favorite MMA messageboard.  The bout is expected to take place on a yet to be defined Strikeforce card sometime in April.

 *UPDATE: the misleading title "It's Official" has been removed because, well... the fight is not yet official. MMAWeekly has confirmed that the bout is strongly intended, but agreements are not yet signed.