Sunday, April 18, 2010

Mayhem a Catalyst to Mayhem!

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What was f**k was Mayhem Miller thinking by interrupting Jake Shields in the middle of the biggest post-fight interview of his career?!? Mayhem moves to the beat of his own drum, and it usually works for him, but in this case it failed miserably. His intention was to steal some of Jake's thunder and to get some network television face time. He was also trying to position himself for a big title fight down the road. Having his earlier fight on the card relegated to a couple of short highlights and not being aired in its entirety couldn't have helped out his mood much. Obviously, Mayhem loves attention and lives for the spotlight. As I'm sure most of you know, he is the host of Bully Beatdown, that pathetic MMA related show on MTV. Just like his latest stunt, that show hasn't helped put the sport in a positive light. Even though the show is garbage, I can't argue with Mayhem for picking up the check and the exposure that MTV is affording him by doing it. Interestingly, Shields appeared on 2 episodes of Bully Beatdown. Its not like these guys don't know each other. Regardless, that moronic move might end up costing Strikeforce million$! In the grand scheme of things, Mayhem seems to be doing more harm than good to the sport as of late.
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All that said, for all we know, Mayhem might have been put up to his stunt by Strikeforce and/or CBS in an attempt to build up some early hype for the potential rematch. Think about it, only certain people are allowed inside the cage. Someone had to let Mayhem in there. He was allowed access during King Mo's fight but he wasn't cornering either Jake or Hendo, so he had no business being in there at that time. I certainly hope that isn't the case, but if it is, those "suits" made a huge mistake! Strikeforce boss, Scott
Coker, denies any involvement, saying, "I can tell you this, none of my staff brought him in there." No one from CBS is on Coker's staff. I'm just saying.............
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The hot-headed, tough guy reaction from the members of the Cesar Gracie Fight Team only made Mayhem's idiotic behavior that much worse. Gilbert Melendez, and the Diaz brothers, Nick and Nate, completely disrespected their team, their employers, their teacher/manager and the sport of MMA . Understand, you have the Strikeforce LW champion, the Strikeforce WW champion and a UFC LW fighter involved. Nice work, fellas! You just fortified the naysayers image of MMA fighters as being thugs and street punks. Way to rep the sport! You guys are geniuses!


Melendez tried to plead his case directly to CBS execs but the words he chose can be interpreted in different ways. In Gil's words, “I hope CBS can forgive us for that because we love fighting and we want the whole world to see that.” We get it Gil, you guys love fighting, but is starting a brawl while your boy was supposed to be enjoying the best moment of his career the best way to show the world that? Come on, dude!


Kelly Kahl, Senior Executive Vice President of CBS prime time, wasn't happy about the incident, but did his best to spin it, saying, “It isn’t something the sport needs and that aspect was disappointing. In the same vein, you see it in basketball, you see it in baseball, you see it in football. There’s a lot of emotion and things kind of happen, but it’s not something we want to see happen in the future.”


Personally, I can't blame Gil and the Diaz brothers for trying to shut Mayhem down, its just the way they chose to do it that was problematic. They could have accomplished the same thing in a much more civil manner. To take it to the level they did was sheer and utter stupidity!


Did any of them realize for a second that millions of people were watching the whole episode LIVE on national television on a MAJOR NETWORK? Did any of them think of the repercussions of their behavior before they acted? I guess in the heat of the full out brawl, none of them heard Gus Johnson's feeble attempt at reminding them, "Gentlemen, we're on national television right now."
Everyone else heard it though since Gus said it on a live mic.


Gentlemen? Wrong word, Gus! 'Assholes' might have been a better choice!
Johnson only made things worse by saying, "sometimes these things happen in MMA, there's a lot of testosterone in the cage." Really, Gus? When exactly was that? I have no recollection of anything even remotely close to that happening in MMA. Mauro Ranallo summed it up best when he disgustedly said, "This is ridiculous, this is ridiculous. My God." The overwhelming disappointment and unhappiness in his voice was clearly evident.


There's no doubt that Mayhem deserved to be shut down, but to go ahead and jump him like that, out numbering him at least 5 to 1, was, at a minimum, borderline retarded. Please excuse my use of "politically incorrect" language. I don't mean people who are mentally challenged, I mean RETARDED! You all know what I'm talking about. As much as Mayhem ruined Shields' shining moment, his own boys compounded it times 100!


All the progress Scott Coker and Strikeforce have made in the last 2 years might have been destroyed in a matter of a few minutes because of the ridiculous nonsense that we saw last night. On the other hand, this incident will bring tons of extra press and publicity to Strikeforce and get their name even more shine than had this not happened. Time will tell.


The Zuffa brass must be laughing their asses off! Is there an envelope with a special "bonus check" in Nate Diaz's near future?!?

2 comments:

  1. I could not agree more.
    Mayhem seemed to want to try to steal the spotlight a bit, but at the same time Shields guys totally over reacted. I mean c'mon it was like 5 on 1.

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  2. I just watched the fight over and over again.
    It is clear that Mayhem was out of line coming into the cage but what he said was not offensive or fight provoking.
    He had a smile on his face when he asked for a rematch. Yes, he could have let Jake have his moment but he did not deserve to jumped by 4 or 5 guys. Where was cage security? How was Mayhem even able to get into the cage? If you watch the tape closely, you can see him enter on the right side of the banner being held by Jake's guys, he then must of popped out from beneath the banner.

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