The Official Mixed Martial Arts (MMA) News & Discussion Thread

[mah0ne]

i'm not really into mma, i follow K1 more tbh

Im also following K-1. Nice promotion with interesting events.

[Cy!]

Can I enter Sharpy?

20 lb 18 month old male wild cat. He has 3 confirmed neighborhood cat kills and a couple maimings. As his owner-trainer-most frequent bloodbag, I'll be happy to attest to his ferocity.

[mah0ne]

Televised card
Jake Shields def. Dan Henderson by unanimous decision
Gilbert Melendez def. Shinya Aoki by unanimous decision
Muhammed Lawal def. Gegard Mousasi by unanimous decision

Preliminary card
Jason "Mayhem" Miller def. Tim Stout by first-round TKO
Ovince St. Preux def. Chris Hawk by first-round TKO
Andrew Uhrich def. Dustin West by first-round submission (rear-naked choke)
Cale Yarbrough def. Josh Schockman by second-round TKO
Zach Underwood def. Hunter Worsham by unanimous decision
Dustin Ortiz def. Justin Pennington by first-round submission (rear-naked choke)
Cody Floyd def. Thomas Campbell by first-round TKO

[mah0ne]

A post-fight altercation following Strikeforce middleweight champion Jake Shields’ unanimous decision victory over Dan Henderson shed a negative light on the promotion’s second live event on CBS Saturday night.

Flanked by CBS announcer Gus Johnson moments after his win, Shields was addressed by Jason "Mayhem" Miller, who stepped up to the microphone and requested a rematch with the champion mid-interview. Strikeforce lightweight champion Gilbert Melendez, welterweight champion Nick Diaz, UFC lightweight Nate Diaz, and others in Shields’ camp intervened in what quickly broke out into an all-out brawl inside the cage. The live telecast broadcasted Miller, on the ground, taking punches and kicks from some members of Shields’ Cesar Gracie team before officials were able to pull them apart.

Strikeforce CEO Scott Coker had already exited the arena for the post-fight press conference when the cage erupted in chaos. When shown a picture taken cageside of the promotion’s two champions, Diaz and Shields, both grabbing at Miller with their fists cocked back, Coker was noticeably shaken.

Questions remain how Miller, who had won a middleweight bout against local fighter Tim Stout earlier that evening, was able to gain entry to the cage following Shields’ victory. Miller did not attend the post-fight press conference.

“I can tell you this,” said Coker. “None of my staff brought him in there.”

Coker said he’d review footage of the disruption before passing judgment on the Strikeforce fighters involved. Coker had already announced his intentions on Thursday to match Miller against Robbie Lawler at a June 16 show in Los Angeles; he told Sherdog.com later that he’d have to reassess that bout.

“Obviously, there’s suspensions and there’s going to be sanctions, things like that that we can do, but I want to take a look at the footage,” he said. “Let’s see who threw the first punch or blow, because I didn’t see it.”

Coker said he’d envisioned the post-fight disruption looking like a previous outburst, also involving both Diaz brothers, which occurred in the wake of K.J. Noons victory over Yves Edwards at EliteXC “Return of the King” in June 2008.

“I’m hoping it’s nothing like that,” said Coker, “but it has no room in our sport because the sport is young. It has no room in any league…when this happens, it affects the entire sport.”

Melendez, who appeared to be the first fighter to intervene as Shields physically shrugged Miller away, apologized for his camp’s outburst during the post-fight press conference, then later approached CBS executives personally to reiterate his regretful actions.

“I hope CBS can forgive us for that because we love fighting and we want the whole world to see that,” Melendez said on the dais.

Melendez, who trains with Shields in San Francisco, Calif., explained his mindset and actions, which sparked the outburst.

“It was Jake’s moment,” said Melendez. “He’d just fought five rounds. He beat a living legend here and I just didn’t want anyone to steal his moment right there. What did (Miller) do that for? I just felt like he needed to give him some space.”

When asked if he felt the Cesar Gracie camp had crossed the line with its attack on Miller, Melendez was hesitant to find fault with his team.

“I don’t know,” said Melendez. “I’d have to plead the fifth on that one. That’s my family. Those are my boys and everything. Like we said, none of this would have happened if we had control of who got into the cage. I don’t think it’s anyone’s fault, like with the fighters or anything. Maybe we should have had control of who got in the cage.”

Shields, who joined the post-fight conference last, said he wasn’t surprised by Miller’s behavior.

“He carries himself in a disrespectful way,” said Shields, who earned a five-round unanimous decision over Miller last November for the vacant middleweight crown. “It’s just his personality. We’ve been friends in the past. We’ve been enemies in the past.”

Kelly Kahl, senior executive vice president of CBS prime time, was expectedly let down by the episode.

“It isn’t something the sport needs and that aspect was disappointing,” said Kahl. “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.”

Kahl, who said he enjoyed the three title fights, would not speculate on what this incident would mean for the future of additional Strikeforce broadcasts on the network.

“We do the same thing we do after every show,” said Kahl. “We review it. We have a discussion. We look at the ratings and we assess.”

[mah0ne]

[mah0ne]

[mah0ne]

[mah0ne]

It seems like there's no post-fight interview with Mayhem Miller that was done after the Brawl with the Diaz Camp.
As far as i know Mayhem was told not to attend the Post Fight Press Conference.

[mah0ne]

I am very dissapointed. It was a wicked card but most of the time it was more of a snorefest. Best thing that happened imo was when my man Mayhem Miller interrupted the post-fight interview of Jake.

I don't know what Gegard was doing there. Im sure he knew that he is losing the fight but still he didn't do jackshit to win the fight. Its not that i don't like King Mo, he is sympathic. I'm just a Gegard fan so im sad to see him losing his title.
Aoki is a wicked submission artist, i wanted him to win but unfortunately that didn't happen.
Henderson is the man, i was rooting for him. The first round was all Hendo. Unfortunately Shield's wrestling caused the fight to turn out kinda boring.

[MovieHound]

I'm one of the seemingly-few MMA fans who appreciates wrestling, so I didn't think any of the fights were boring at all. That said, I was disappointed with Mousasi, Aoki and Henderson. I thought all three underperformed, for various reasons, and were deservedly beaten.



I thought the post-match melee was stupid, from start to finish. Scott Coker said he'll probably level suspensions and "sanctions" after his folks review the tape and interview the people who were there. I think significant suspensions would hurt the promotion as much, or more than, it would hurt the individual fighters, but I think Miller, Shields, Melendez, and the Diaz brothers should all be fined (and yes, Nate Diaz isn't a Strikeforce fighter - Dana White should set aside his professional competitiveness here and offer to back up Coker). And if Shields, Melendez and Nick Diaz are fined a little more than Miller and Nate, merely because they're the organization's champions and should hold themselves to a higher standard, I wouldn't argue.

[mah0ne]

TBH, what did Mayhem do wrong. Well, he did interupt the post-fight interview, so he was disrespectful. But all the cornermen of Shiels immediately were all over Mayhem.
I wonder how Mayhem could get into the cage, anyway.

[mah0ne]

Nice, a post fight brawl interview of Miller. (Short appearance of Nick in the beginning)

http://www.mmatko.com/jason-mayhem-m...t-fight-brawl/

[MovieHound]

TBH, what did Mayhem do wrong. Well, he did interupt the post-fight interview, so he was disrespectful. But all the cornermen of Shiels immediately were all over Mayhem.

I guess you answered your own question, but yeah, I think Miller should be fined. There's a chance that the Gracie-Barra guys could be charged with battery, and some people around the web are saying that someone kicked Miller in the head while wearing a shoe, which is battery-with-a-weapon in many states. That would be "GBH" in the United Kingdom - I'm not sure what the equivalent would be in Germany.

I wonder how Mayhem could get into the cage, anyway.

Coker mentioned that he's looking into that, too. Many heads could roll.

[mah0ne]

The stats show that ratings actually dropped during the last half hour of the show’s alloted two hour time-slot on CBS – though in fact the show actually ran on longer than that so we will have to wait until later on in the week to find out how the rest of the show fared.

To give you a rough idea of where those numbers compare to previous MMA events on the CBS network. Please note these are the final ratings for these events which tend to be higher than the overnights.

• First EliteXC on CBS: Averaged 4.85 million viewers
• Second EliteXC on CBS: Averaged 2.57 million
• Third EliteXC on CBS: Averaged 4.56 million
• Strikeforce: Fedor Vs Rogers On CBS: Averaged 4.042 million (3.79 million in the overnights)
• Strikeforce Nashville: Averaged 2.63 million (based on the overnights)

The figures do not bode well for Strikeforce’s long-term future on the CBS network

[mah0ne]

While "Strikeforce: Nashville" had a few interesting developments, including Jake Shields' upset win over Dan Henderson and the historic matchup of champion vs. champion, Saturday night's event will ultimately be remembered for one thing: the post-fight brawl.

The ugly, CBS-broadcast melee undoubtedly marred what had been a relatively ho-hum night up to that point.

But at the evening's post-event press conference, Strikeforce CEO Scott Coker made one thing perfectly clear: the organization had nothing to do with Jason "Mayhem" Miller's presence in the cage. In fact, Coker said Miller should have been able to see the brawl coming.

"There's no room in Strikeforce for that type of behavior," Coker said. "I will not condone and reward that type of behavior. If you're a fighter fighting at the highest level, and you're fighting on CBS, you're fighting on Showtime, you're fighting for Strikeforce – or any other mixed martial arts league – there's no room for that type of behavior.

"This is not something that we'll support or reward in the future."

The entire incident began when Miller entered the cage during Shields' post-fight speech with CBS broadcaster Gus Johnson. Shields hardly got one sentence out before Miller jumped on the mic and asked for a rematch of their 2009 meeting. Shields' teammate, Gilbert Melendez, tried to pull Miller away, and the champion assisted with a shove.

From there, Shields' teammates Nick and Nate Diaz also jumped in the fray, and the cage quickly resembled a barroom brawl – well, a barroom brawl broadcast on national television.

Much of the conversation in the mixed martial arts community following the incident has focused on assigning blame for the dust-up. While Coker was forced to speak about the incident before he had a chance to see it with his own eyes – the exec had already begun his transit to the evening's post-fight press conference when the trouble began – he believes Miller should have been able to foresee the consequences of his cage entrance.

"I didn't see it," Coker said. "I don't know how [Miller] got in there. But when you have the cornermen that Jake has, and something like that happens, you know there's going to be an issue. I don't know why he couldn't have thought that out because I could have told you that prior to them (brawling) that we should have kept them apart.

"I had no idea that [Miller] was going to do that. ... I can say this: no one from my staff brought him there."

Coker said he would wait to receive video evidence of the skirmish before he decides if the promotion will take disciplinary action on the fighters involved. One of the combatants, Nate Diaz, fights for the UFC, so any disciplinary sanctions on him would need to be instituted by the Tennessee Athletic Commission, who will also likely review the incident.

But regardless of what, if any, disciplinary action is taken moving forward, Coker believes the incident was unfortunate and unnecessary.

"I'm going to look at the video and see what happened," Coker said. "I don't have enough information right now, but it's not good for our sport. Our sport is in its infant stages. It's a great sport. These guys are amazing athletes.

"It was an amazing night. I think it was a milestone with Gilbert's fight with the DREAM champion and the Strikeforce champion. For something like that, to try and steal the limelight from a great fighter like Jake Shields, who really imposed his will and his style of fighting on Dan Henderson, I think it's unnecessary."