"Just name the Gym" - Jake Shields agrees to fight Israeli mixed martial artist to settle heated ongoing beef

It appears as though Jake Shields' ongoing social media beef has reached its breaking point as he recently agreed to fight an Israeli mixed martial artist.

The former Strikeforce middleweight champion has not shied away from using his platform and sharing his views regarding the ongoing Israel-Palestine conflict, which has seen him both gain support from some and anger others. He has since been involved in a heated social media beef with Haim Gozali, who issued a challenge for a bare-knuckle boxing bout on his X account.

Gozali wrote:

"Fake @jakeshieldsajj I’m still waiting for your answer To Bare knuckle fight ? You send your fake followers to send me massage for what ? I said yes !!! You spreading lies on Israel just because you anti-semitic nothing more than that. So anytime you want I will meet you in bare knuckle ! If it’s too much for you we can do Boxing."

Jake Shields responded to the former Bellator middleweight and agreed to settle their differences in a fight. He not only agreed to Haim Gozali's proposal for a bare-knuckle bout, but he even offered to fight him in any location he preferred, writing:

"I prefer bare knuckles so let's do it. Just name the Gym and let's do UFC one rules where it's a real fight"

Challenge and response tweets

It remains to be seen whether Jake Shields and Haim Gozali will actually go through with their fight or if cooler heads will prevail.

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Who did Jake Shields defeat to win the Strikeforce middleweight championship?

Jake Shields achieved a great deal of success during his MMA career and capped off a stellar tenure with Strikeforce by winning their middleweight championship.

In November 2009, the Jiu-Jitsu practitioner fought Jason 'Mayhem' Miller for the vacant Strikeforce middleweight championship. It was an impressive showing as he earned a unanimous decision win to become the new middleweight champion.

What made his run much more impressive was that he successfully retained his title against former two-division Pride champion Dan Henderson via unanimous decision. It marked his final bout with Strikeforce as he vacated the title and joined the UFC's welterweight division.

MMA History Today tweet regarding Strikeforce middleweight champion