FiveKnuckles.com: What are your thoughts on Mayhem personally.

Jake Shields: Uh... I'm not a big fan. I think the guys kind of a disrespectful prick to be honest, but whatever.

FiveKnuckles.com: Going back to Nick and Nate Diaz. Anyone I've ever spoken with who knows them personally thinks the world of them, but they seem to have a bit of a reputation as thugs within the greater MMA community. What are they like behind closed doors?

Jake Shields: It's just really not the case. Emotions run high. People do things they wouldn't normally do in certain situations. And I know the Diaz brothers get a bad rap, but they are really good guys. It's just when they get into a fight, they try to get themselves pumped up, especially Nick. People always see Nick acting crazy, you know, flipping people off. But, that's his way of psyching himself up to fight. People don't understand. It's not easy to get in there and go fight someone in a cage, and that's kind of his way of dealing with it. But he's got this reputation, and it's really not deserved. Everyone always meets Nick and they're surprised at how nice he is outside the cage.

He'll spend more time with white belts than anyone I know. He'll be there for hours after training helping white belts out with their technique. And he doesn't get anything out of it, it's just he's a helpful guy and he wants to help people get better. It's not very often that you'll see a professional athlete spending hours and hours of his personal time just to help people get better. And not for any gain, just to help people succeed. When was the last time you saw a professional basketball player or football player spending hours and hours of their personal time just to help other regular guys get better?

As far as the incident, I think Nick and Nate (Diaz) and Gilbert (Melendez) get some criticism when I don't think they deserved it. I think they were just there. And people need to realize too, yeah they did jump in, but these guys are like my brothers. We've been training together for eight or nine years now. We've traveled the world together, and we spend a lot of time together on a daily basis, so if they see someone come up to me and disrespect me like that, of course they're going to get defensive.

FiveKnuckles.com: Much has been made about your contract status. Can you fill us in on the current status of your contract with Strikeforce?

Jake Shields: I'm a free agent basically. My agent has told me I'm a free agent now. There was one fight left on my contract, but the way it was written up [Strikeforce] was supposed to notify me of who my next opponent was by April 10, and that's past so I'm a free agent. There's a little bit of time left for talks and stuff, so I'm not 100% a free agent yet,...