Jake Shields did a nice of stepping up the last two times out when Scott Coker and Strikeforce needed a solid name fighter on two of its most recent card. The problem now is Shields holds a title belt in a division where he doesn't really belong. The 30-year-old from San Francisco can definitely compete at middleweight but really belongs down at 170 pounds and admitted such in the postfight after his win over Jason Miller in Chicago picking up the vacant Strikeforce middleweight title.

Shields, primarily a grappler, did what he had to do to get the win but he couldn't have pleased those casual fans, new to MMA on CBS. Miller said he lost the "grapplefest" and there was lots "snuggling." Shields admitted that he wanted to finish the fight but could never do so in spite of scoring the mount against Miller at least 10 times. He didn't do a ton of damage from the mount either. Miller's face was barely marked up after the fight. Bottomline is Shields (24-4) is too small for top middleweights.

Shields wants to fight at welterweight but the Strikeforce roster has been bereft of depth Nick Diaz is there, but he and Shields are buddies. DREAM welterweight champ Marius Zaromskis is there too. That's the fight lots of people would like to see. In the immediate future, the fight Coker needs to make is Cung Le against Shields. There's definitely heat between the fighters, Shields called out Le during the presser (2:20 mark) saying Le relinquished the belt because he was afraid to face him. It is odd that Le is returning so soon after dumping the belt. He'll fight Scott Smith in less than five weeks at the HP Pavilion on Dec. 19. The former champ needs to fight the current champ in the first quarter of 2010.  

Coker mentioned Ronaldo "Jacare" Souza and Matt Lindland as possible challengers for Shields.