Jake Shields vs. Drew Fickett Elite XC title fight postponed (again)

There has been another setback involving the Jake Shields and Drew Fickett Elite XC welterweight title fight because of an injury. This time it is "The Master" who has the issue, sustaining an injury to his knee that will force the fight for the vacant welterweight tile to be scratched from the June 14 show in Hawaii, according to MMAWeekly.com.

Originally the two were set to meet at the Strikeforce/Elite XC co-promoted event in San Jose in March, which was headlined by Frank Shamrock and Cung Le. However, Shields hurt his back and had to withdraw less than a week out from the fight.

Fickett still went on to compete that night against Jae Suk Lim. He dominated with a first round submission and had an interesting in cage interview afterwards with Shields standing by.

In fact, Fickett predicted the fight on June 14 would end by death from rear naked choke.

Fickett looked great in that fight and a little psychotic afterwards, which was great because at that moment I was finally starting to believe he had a legit shot at being the first Elite XC welterweight champ.

At first this fight had its skeptics. Some felt Shields was superior in talent and confidence to Fickett and would just roll right through him, but now this fight has hype, and this fight is for real. The only thing ... is it ever going to happen?

Here's a snip from Gary Shaw, Elite XC live events president, on moving the fight again:

"Obviously the back injury happened (to Shields) and the easiest thing to do was move him to Hawaii to fight Drew. Unfortunately since then Drew Fickett has hurt his knee and he's not going to be able to take that fight on June 14 and that will be rescheduled again."

Shaw went on to say there was still a possibility Shields could fight a replacement fighter in Hawaii, like Fickett did in San Jose, but that was unlikely because he was still recovering from the original back injury.

Here's Jake Shields on that:

"I think I could be okay to fight by (June 14), but I think opting for July would probably be the smartest thing. It would give me more time to rehab before jumping into sparring, and I think there would be a little more exposure with it being on CBS (in July)."

I have to agree with Jake on that one. I'm more interested in seeing him fight Fickett later than some has been or never will be replacement now. I was curious as to the reason this title fight wouldn't be on a CBS broadcast anyway ... it only makes sense to me to put this fight in front of as many viewers as possible.

Plus, with the KJ Noons and Yves Edwards title fight still a go for June 14 in Hawaii, I think that card will be just fine. Remember, Nick Diaz vs. Muhsin Corbbrey is also scheduled for that night, and there are other rumors involving Ninja Rua for Hawaii as well.

We'll have more on the June 14 show in a bit.