THE ART OF VIOLENCE NO. I

Jake Shields

This interview has been edited for brevity and clarity.

I laid eyes on Jake Shields for the first time on April 30 2011, when he fought against George St-Pierre (GSP) for the welterweight title of the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC). The event was held in Toronto as Ontario’s first sanctioned Mixed Martial Arts (MMA) competition, and of greater historical importance, it welcomed fifty-five thousand fans, nearly double the number in attendance than the previous North American record, which had also taken place in a Canadian city, that time in the stripper mecca of Montreal. For a country that would likely lose a war against Costa Rica, Canadians seem to be in love with blood-sports, and on that momentous night it was Quebec’s favorite bouncer who fastened the championship belt to his waist, having won by decision. By visual inspection, however, Jake appeared untouched whereas GSP wore the countenance of a face which had met a masticator.

Jake Sequoyah Shields was raised by hippies in rural California in a made-up sounding location called Mountain Ranch; in fact, it’s not even a town or village officially but a “census-designated place,” which if investigated is probably a euphemism for any “geography consanguineously populated.” (I, too, grew up in such an area where the phonebook is really a family registry). His childhood home was nested beside a canyon, giving Jake plenty of time to climb summits, on which he developed the spirit that comes from mountaineering, the spirit which seems to give wrestlers their gritty perseverance. His parents gave him the middle name “Sequoyah” after the Cherokeean polymath from Tuskegee (not the Syphilitic one), a Native whose portrait depicts a suspiciously Arab-looking man. Despite the name though, Jake is as indigenous as Elizabeth Warren, which means he can drink beer and booze without sleeping on the sidewalk.

His record contains the capture of four championship titles in four separate MMA organizations, earning him immortality in combat sports. At the height of his career Jake triumphed against fifteen consecutive fighters, without any interrupting loses, including against the two reputable strikers, Yushin Okami and Carlos Condit, whom he defeated in the same night. (Carlos Condit would later become a UFC interim champion). This kind of success is rare in MMA. Even rarer still is that Jake achieved such glory while swallowing the spinach-propaganda of Popeye the Sailor Man. As a lifelong vegetarian he has yet to tell me what he thinks about the invective “soy-boy”.

To add to his blood-stained laurels, Jake is furthermore a pioneer – certainly the patriarch if not the singular inventor – of “American Jiu-Jitsu” (AJJ), a name he coined and then tattooed on his arm to make the association indelible. But time is unforgiving to warriors, and professional fighting is no differently skewed towards youth. Jake is no longer competing in MMA. He keeps himself busy by training, hosting seminars, investing, and will soon be launching a brand of apparel for American Jiu-Jitsu. Jake casually mentions “some involvement in the Cannabis industry” too, which I assume is something other than watching who between Nick and Nate can rip the bigger bowl.

But even if Jake has hung up his four-ounce gloves, he has found other belligerent callings outside the octagon, off the mat, and away from sanctioned spaces. Jake is still ready to fight. Not only with words, either, though he has proven to be quite an effective shit-slinger on Twitter. In 2017 when Antifa organized their chimp-out on Berkeley campus in protest against Milo Yiannopoulos ­– the flamboyant faggot-cum-fascist – or rather – the limp-wristed reactionary and pederast – and now – the reformed homosexualist – Jake rose in defense of a bystander caught in the chaos and managed to beat into submission two black bloc agitators.

And Antifa is only one of many organizations within Jake’s crosshairs; he is often disdainful towards any group that sows anarchy, such as Black Lives Matter, though he does insist that he’s not racist. No really. So if one of you have an extra copy of the Comte de Gobineau’s famous book, please make a note of Jake’s birthday: January 9.

Don’t mistake Jake’s moderation as sign of weakness, however, because Jake is instinctually and spiritually one of us. He will no doubt radicalize further to the cliff-edge and join the frogs, a migration borne out already. All you have to do is give it time. Jake is indeed an excellent example of the “regular American,” the non-autists who, unlike us, have better things to do than memorize Nietzsche’s most mordant aphorisms and suffer the imagined patriotic nostalgia for the Red, White and Bl…ack.

Because even though he takes a common-sense perspective, one promoting freedom and health, Jake is now being forced to wear the far-right armband. It would seem as though the lower-castes of those around him, the unconscious chaperones of globohomo, have become like an indiscriminate Aldo the Apache, carving the swastika into anyone hailing a cab – just in case! – thereby forcing regular commuters in marching line with the einsatzgruppen.     

I now call Jake just over a decade after the fight, a phone call occasionally interrupted because Jake has bad phone reception in certain parts of his house, and because my service is worse in rural Canada than it is in most countries that boast not a single modern invention. My questions are not linear. They are schizophrenic.    

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Jake, are you still living in San Francisco?


No, I moved to Las Vegas recently, now over one year ago. In large part it was due to the obvious COVID insanity, but along with San Francisco’s other issues, it’s not a place to live. After the initial lockdown, there was almost a whole year of extreme restrictions – of not going out to eat, when even outdoor dining was closed – yet on the street there would regularly be entire block parties of homeless people.


So what you’re saying is that you moved to Las Vegas for the girls?


I have a girlfriend right now. But if you are single and a UFC fighter, it’s a good place to be – always tons of girls in Vegas.


We might as well just get this out of the way: you’re a vegetarian or a vegan, why? Were you raised this way?


Yes, my parents were hippies, they leaned quite left, although not the left of today’s standards.  I grew up vegetarian, not vegan: eating eggs and cheese. I’ve thought about eating meat on occasion, but I find factory farming disgusting – I think most people do – and the few times I’ve tried eating meat, my body couldn’t handle it so I stuck to vegetarianism. Maybe if I hunted. But then again, I love animals; it would be for survival only, though I love hiking and being outdoors, so I’m sure I would enjoy that part of the hunt.


And unlike your parents, you obviously lean politically to the right?


I lean right, but there is a ton of shit on the right too. A lot of the things that designate me right shouldn’t even be political though. I think it should be common sense. For example: I was very much against extreme COVID lockdowns, even from the beginning when Trump was turning the key; I maintain the biological differences between men and woman, a very stupid debate; and, I don’t want to pay insane amounts of taxes, especially because of the incompetence of our government.


Men and women are different, you say? Consider this: Joe Rogan drops down to 145lbs in weight – he might have to get off his TRT and stop eating elk – to fight Amanda Nunes (unanimously considered the best female fighter in the world at the time of this phone call), who wins?


Men are just so, so much superior to women it's not even fair. Joe Rogan is in his fifties and has only trained a bit, but would still probably beat the best woman of all time. My prediction would be that if Joe did a little cage work and a little takedown work, he could probably just push her against the octagon, put her on the mat, and then smash her. That's how big the differences are. The only people who don’t understand this are the liberals, the mostly weak men who have never played sports, who have never been with women, and so don't understand the differences between bodies, let alone the differences between the bodies of men and women. They are not in reality.


Yes, and they especially do not understand violence, which is not coincidence. In fact, many media mouthpieces have claimed an inextricable link between MMA and the far-right. Unfortunately, there is a defensive tendency among some fans to say that “MMA is not political” but I think that, really, corporate media is actually correct making this connection. The modern left seems to lack all comprehension of violence by actively courting civil unrest without understanding its implications. They seem to live in a fantasy of marvel-movie proportions in which they can dismiss any order and its enforcement until they desperately need it. But violent chickens come home and roost violently. This was very obvious in the Kyle Rittenhouse case. I’d like to ask about a few things following this train of thought: (1) Describe your own interaction with Antifa, an altercation that has landed you in the media; (2) Sometimes a man can get a sense of his opponent during a face-off, what could you sense in your Berkeley rivals?; (3) The MMA fighter is the closest modern equivalent to the gladiator, a parallel that was used before the “Face the Pain” introduction back in the day (which I desperately miss). I think that the training, discipline, and competition, but most of all, the love of battle gives an MMA fighter an understanding which is inherently right-wing. The sport requires understanding of basic realities of human nature for which feel-good illusions have neither a market-value, it doesn’t sell tickets, nor does it help at all with a warrior's mindset. What are your thoughts?


So about four or five years ago, a gay guy hit me up inviting me to some event. This guy Milo Yiannopoulos was giving a talk ­– I had no idea who he was – but I went to check out his speech at Berkeley, and when I got there, there were massive riots. People were getting beat up in the streets. At one point I had to become physically involved and fight people off. I remember pulling one guy into a liquor store to save him from the mob. Unfortunately, I had my girlfriend with me at the time, and I wanted to get her out of harm’s way. As we were leaving, I approached the police. They told me that they were strictly forbidden from getting involved. I asked them, "You're just going to let people get hurt," and they shrugged. I was pissed off and went back into the chaos to prevent further attacks on random people. But the whole thing was a mess. My girlfriend continued to follow me – she was a little naïve – and had I to tell her: "Look, these people will hit you, you should wait in the car," but she kept tailing me. I didn't want to jeopardize her safety so we left. Later on, we watched the videos of girls getting clubbed by bats, and I fully realized how insane these people are. Think about it in simple terms: they rioted at a college to stop a gay man from speaking. These protesters were calling Milo a Nazi, which he's not. He might even be a Jew. Anyway, the left is playing a game of make-believe. They don't realize the consequences, they don’t actually know how to fight; it's just a game. You asked me how I felt when I squared off? I've been in lots of street fights growing up and many professional fights in my career. These were the weakest people I ever faced off against. I was there by myself with my girlfriend, a disadvantage, and I was up against ten of them. As soon as I threw a couple of punches, dropped a few guys to the ground, all of a sudden reality kicked in and their demeanor changed. They went from calling me a Nazi to scurrying off. When I became a threat, then they started talking with reason. But hilariously, after the men ran away, I actually had a chick come up to me and try to hit me with a rod or something. It’s was so ridiculous. I didn't punch her, but I was looking at her like "this girl is really trying to face up to me." These people are so out of touch with reality. Later that evening I considered going back with my fighter friends. I think if we stood back to back, we likely could have taken the whole Antifa mob; it wouldn’t have mattered if there were hundreds of them, we could have beaten them senseless – more senseless. I was tempted to go back but I realized it wasn't the smartest thing to do. Still these guys aren't capable of fighting. They are the most unathletic, untough people. The thing I was scared about, though, was my girlfriend getting hit, because she was putting herself in the middle of the conflict. I think these guys are so weak, they have no issue with attacking a girl - remember these are the people who support men fighting women.


On that note, Jake, what would you recommend for those of us who predict, and are preparing for, future clashes? What are your thoughts on Krav Maga, outside the octogen of course? Is it genuinely the most effective combat system around, as it’s sometimes touted to be, or do you think it’s just IDF propaganda to promote Israeli supremacy?


I am not too familiar with Krav Maga, and I don't like knocking things I don’t know. That said, if I was offered the choice between three men who had trained MMA for a year, or three guys who had trained Krav Maga, in a street fight I would choose the three MMA guys without skipping a heartbeat. Of course, I don't mean to imply that Krav Maga doesn't work, but what do they really teach you? How to kick someone in the nuts, or how to eye gouge? I know how to kick someone in the nuts, and to eye gouge. Really, I think the best bet is to pick some martial art that in practice includes live sparring. Look at every martial art that is successful in MMA, each gives primacy to live sparring: Judo, Jiu-Jitsu, wrestling, kickboxing, boxing; while the martial arts that have failed were never heavy on live sparing: Kung Fu, Karate, etc. This is not a coincidence; without live sparring you can't work out what is effective for combat.


There is the conspicuous pride of nationality and even “blood and soil” within MMA, and certain racial or ethnic groups, whatever you prefer to call them, appear dominant in particular ways. The Dagastanis, a North Caucasian ethnicity, which literally translates as "mountain people," all seem to have similar physiognomies and show a certain advantage in wrestling and with ground control. Brazilians have always been proud of their sneaky grappling, through which they catch people in submissions (more on this later). The Japanese, as history knows them, seem to produce very honorable fighters. It goes on and on. There is a certain powerful type that comes out of West-Central Africa, for instance: Cheick Kongo, Francis Ngannou, and Kamaru Usman. Then there are the Mexican scrappers such as Diego Sanchez, the Diaz brothers, Brendan Moreno, and Kevin Gastelum. These men are nearly impossible to stop and must have a powerful mix of Aztec and Conquistador blood. They seem to channel the spirit of Hernan Cortez, the man who defeated the Aztec and colonized Mexico and, as legend has it, sunk his own ships before some battle, only to eliminate any possibility of retreat. Yes, the bean-brawlers seem to only accept a decisive win or a decisive loss. These are all archetypes; of course, there are exceptions. The point is that MMA seems to display the real biological differences between racial groups. At one time wars, allowing one genetic population to wipe out another (genocide), meant that only the stronger or smarter of the two could populate the future. The differences then would have been far more obvious. But still today, interestingly, in MMA we see biological differences amongst distinct and somewhat homogenous people. To again use Dagestan as an extreme example, it is a place, to speak in euphemism, where pollination happens within the same meadow. The question I’m ultimately creeping towards is: if you had to race-mix to make the perfect fighter, like how a dog-breeder might do to make the most ferocious mutt, what races would you copulate?


Oh man, that is a tough question - a great question - and there are definitely some differences. First you have to ask, how much is cultural and how much is genetic, or is it both – and it's probably both. Honor in Japan for instance, in its extreme form, has decreased tremendously within the past twenty years. When I was first fighting, the Japanese were so dignified. Now you don't see very many good Japanese fighters. Sadly, I think Japanese men are getting weaker and their culture is weakening too. As for Mexicans – I mostly train with Mexicans. My three main training partners are Gilbert Melendez, Nate and Nick Diaz. These men are the epitomy of the Mexican fighter: they are in your face, they grind relentlessly, and their cardio is good, which is maybe because they push so hard mentally. The Dagastanis would be good to mix too. They have a heavy wrestling base, they are strong; although, there has to be something else too – these are mountain people and they have this strong will. They never want to lose. When you train with them, they never go easy. They train like it’s itself a fight and so come after you fearlessly. A lot of times American guys train at fifty percent, but when you train with the Dagastanis, you train at one hundred percent. So, on the mat is where you learn the differences in the races. As far as the Africans are concerned, that's very interesting, because none of the African countries are really producing fighters locally. When they come to America to train, however, they become some of the best fighters in the league. You said they were all from the same general region, because that is something I've not followed too closely. I've trained with Ngannou a little bit and he's so explosive, so athletic; it’s same with Usman, so again you can see the differences in races. But all said, I think that America is still the greatest - we are the melting pot - we consume everything and produce a better product. Many of these guys from other countries, they move to America, train here, and a lot of them become citizens. We have the best facilities, the best work ethic, and the best spirit. And many of these men come here to accomplish the American dream. That’s what is interesting too, all of the immigrant fighters are extremely proud Americans: they worked their ass off, they literally fight for their citizenships, only to become American. Then you have the liberals who chant about how American is bad, and the immigrant fighters say "I love it here. I’ve made millions of dollars." Take Usman for instance, who came from Nigeria. He is the American dream. The left tried to co-opt him in his fight against Colby, but as I far as I know, Usman is a patriotic American.


You are really just a multi-cultural liberal. Anyway, you mentioned “the will,” which I think is worth discussing because of the modern mass bureaucratization of human spirit. Humans, we are told, are influenced by trends, economics, material conditions, much like controlled and inanimate variables within a scientific laboratory. There isn’t much discussion or room for the indominable spirit in academic discourse, modern literature, and the general culture. It goes against their entire perspective, which seeks to micromanage the universe. But MMA strikes such a weak conception of life as utterly absurd, because we see the power of the will every time we watch a fight, and it surfaces the power of its existence, disrobed in an entirely preconscious state. What has a career as a fighter taught you about the insuperable will?


Will is one of the most important things, without a doubt. You're not going to be an elite fighter without a very strong will. Sometimes you get guys who are great athletes and who have an intimidating presence, but when they actually fight, they fold, because there is little else that compares to getting hit, getting hurt, especially when you’re tired. Henderson knocked me down three times in the first round, but by pure will I kept getting up to fight. Can this be taught? I don’t think there is any other sport where a man is pitted against a man – or a woman against a woman – and the goal is to hit or choke your opponent until he is left unconscious. It's the ultimate test of will and that's why people love it so much; there's nothing as pure for people to watch. Of course, in basketball and football there is toughness, but it's not pure battle – one person's will against another. Again, let me put Henderson fight into a narrative. Henderson was a lot heavier than me, bigger than me, and he has one of the hardest punches in the sport. He first laid me out with an overhand right. I sprang up and he hit me again, this second time with an uppercut and I fell, dazed, seeing double. Most guys at this point lie down and let the referee stop the contest. But I just repeated to myself, like a mantra, “keep moving, keep moving” so that the fight continued, and slowly, my vision returned to normal, and I started regaining my bearing. That is when I decided that I could still win. Remember I fought Henderson right after he had knockout out Michael Bisping at UFC 100 with the same overhand right he hit me with, but then followed by the superman punch to the ground. The whole time I kept thinking “Don’t get Bisping’d.”


I have a question about this evolution of the sport and your role in it, for which I first have to ramble briefly on the history of grappling. A short history: when Mitsuyo Maeda, an expert in traditional martial arts and especially Judo, came to Brazil in early 1900s as diplomat, during a great Japanese migration of laborers and empresarios, he came across the Scottish-descended Gracie family and took on one of the sons, Carlos, as a disciple. The origin myth has it that Hélio, the younger brother of Carlos, was a sick and meagre boy who couldn’t perform as well as his brother, because he lacked in physical qualities such as size, strength, speed, and power. But what Hélio lacked in brawn he made up for in brains by adapting positions to make use of leverage. Such innovation would have been shunned in Japan for its dismissal of ritual and ossified traditional techniques. But soon Hélio’s systematic improvements would become so popular his techniques would become known as Gracie Jiu-Jitsu. There are many theories about how Gracie Jiu-Jitsu later morphed into Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu. The theory I am most persuade by is the one given by Clark Gracie. He identifies a quality derived from the Brazilian culture called maladragem. It means crafty, sneaky, and cunning, which I think is a very common personality trait and survival mechanism in most of the third world. Maladragem is perhaps not a technique per se but a mentality through which a technique is executed, which separates it from its more formal, honorific parent, similar to how Hélio transformed Jiu-Jitsu previously. Now, you are an advocate and practitioner of another variant called American Jiu-Jitsu (AJJ). Keenan Cornelius, another famous grappler, has said American Jiu-Jitsu can be understood – rather boringly – as "Americans who do Jiu-Jitsu” and that the term is essentially a placeholder for definition not yet arrived at. It’s not a very satisfying answer. Could you now give AJJ a technical definition, which obviously distinguishes it from its Gracie or Brazilian predecessor?


I was the first person who coined American Jiu-Jitsu, a term which has been used now for about twenty years. Like you said earlier, Jiu-Jitsu came from Japan, but the Brazilians put on their own personality, infused their trickiness, and changed it fundamentally. I did the same. Originally, I was the one of the first people to take the Gi off. I wanted to fuse wrestling and Jiu-Jitsu seamlessly, to make it into one art. Also, in Gracie Jiu-Jitsu, it was all about waiting for your opponent to make a mistake since there is no time limit. Fighters just wait. In MMA, however, there are rounds, so I decided to force the mistakes. It's a very American attitude of going in and taking things, to relentless come after your enemy. So I added the pressure of constantly attacking, constantly forcing reactions.


Caesar Gracie was your mentor, whose great grand-uncle was none other than Hélio. I have heard whispers about a peculiar underground philosophy called Integralism, which he was said to have practised, and which is said to have been inspirited by fascism. What is Integralism?


I haven’t ever heard about Integralism. I will ask Renzo (Gracie) and get back to you.


Yes, please do. Some of the earliest enemies of MMA, especially of the UFC, came from Republicans such as Senator John McCain, who called the sport “human cockfighting”. Mainstream media subsequently refused to cover the fights. But it was Donald Trump who realized the brilliance and value of MMA, in 2001, and gave it a platform that legitimized the sport. This was much before his political metamorphosis. Looking back on how MMA was treated, the distinction between the “cuckservative” and us on the “alt-right” or “populist-right” or as BAP may call it “the faction of truth” is now fairly obvious. Was this apparent at the time?


Not really. Fighters didn't seem to care too much about politics. But politicians like McCain and Chris Christy were the morons who I never supported. I actually fought in the dark ages of MMA because of these Republicans, before the sport was on cable TV and on Native American reserves. They tried their best to suppress MMA. Looking back now it’s funny how the sport became embraced by the right-wing. It is probably a combination of Trump being a huge MMA fan, and that the majority of MMA fans for whatever reason tend to hang towards the far-right – and not just white guys, black guys, middle eastern fighters, they're all against the left.


What is more satisfying: tapping-out an opponent or sending him to sleep?


Putting someone to sleep is more satisfying. They generally tap first, but when someone completely collapses, it's such a great feeling. Sometimes you're so amped up, though, you don't want to stop when your opponent taps. It's just such a great feeling when someone crumbles unconscious in your arms.


It’s rather romantic. Anyway, last question: Jason Miller – did you ever reconcile?


No, but I don’t hate the guy, I feel bad for him. He's just crazy. He's been in and out of jail, he has emotional problems and he was mad at the time because I poached some girl that he liked. I hope for the best of him at this point.


Yes, I remember watching the two of you brawl on live television, after the “Where’s my rematch, buddy?” incident. I enjoyed that, as well as the Conor-Khabib afterparty.


Those were great. I can think of others as well, but those two stand out. The funny thing is that the brawls, we probably shouldn’t do them, but they're fun. And you see the disconnect within the MMA media. They will comment on the brawl saying that it is “the most shameful thing we've ever seen” and make predictions such as “this is going to end his career.” But then you talk to fans and they absolutely love it. The fact is: we're not just athletes, we’re fighters, and sometimes we're going to get into a fight.