he Jake Shields Jason "Mayhem" Miller MMA Strikeforce brawl mars event

The MMA already has problems with its image and the Strikeforce brawl of April 17, 2010, did little to improve that. The MMA has gone to significant lengths to separate their image from that of professional wrestling to be viewed as a real sport and not sports entertainment. In the last two weeks, two MMA organizations have had to deal with problems that in some ways threaten that image.
In Abu Dhabi on Sunday April 10, 2010, the card was supposed to be a showcase to impress new investors that spent a nice chunk of change to become 10% owners. What they got was a farce of a main event that was so embarrassing it had to be apologized for and may lead to the champ facing some kind of
disciplinary action. Now with a national viewing audience on CBS there is a problem with a brawl that can be described as juvenile at best.

Jake Shields successfully defended his championship belt against veteran fighter Dan Henderson. During the obligatory post fight interview, Shields was carrying on as one would expect - he wasn’t being rude or snide in any way, he was just answering the questions posed to him. Nothing seemed out of the ordinary until Jason “Mayhem” Miller decided to insert himself into the scene.

At first glance this had a Vince McMahon feel to it - the champ being called out face to face in the interview area demanding a rematch. Fans of professional wrestling have become so familiar with the script it hardly raises an eyebrow anymore, except this isn’t professional wrestling. Gilbert Melendez, Strikeforce lightweight champion, was on hand and decided that Miller’s overt and poorly thought out move went too far and shoved Miller. Then brothers Nick and Nate Diaz got in on it and started mixing it up with Miller, and again all you could think was “who scripted this mess, and why would they try this angle?”

Then you realize this wasn’t scripted, this was turning into a real mess, and all announcer Gus Johnson could do for his part was ineffectively announce “Gentleman we’re on national television.” That had no impact as a full out brawl erupted and at least right away nobody in the immediate area wanted to get involved in that mess to try to pull the professionally trained ass kickers off of each other - and in all honesty who could blame them?

Once order was returned, it wasn’t Miller apologizing for his stupidity, nor was it Melendez for shoving Miller, or the Diaz brothers for fanning the

flames. It was Shields who commented this was out of character, the very person that didn’t do anything to instigate or escalate the brawl. All he basically did was try to stop it, yet he is the one that is issuing the apology for the stupidity and over emotional and physical reaction of others. If anything he is the one person that came out of the brawl looking like a well adjusted adult.

When you look back on the whole scene you have to ask why Miller was even there? He wasn’t on the card, and given his longstanding problems with Shields you would think that someone had to the presence of a self absorbed narcissistic media whore like Miller showing up had to be a bad idea. Miller is all too

well known for doing anything he has to in order to get his face time in front of an audience whether in a rational manner or like this.

As much of a moron as Miller was you still have to put a hefty load of blame on Melendez who never should have escalated the issue by getting physical. The Diaz brothers come out of this looking like huge bullies that need a time out and hopefully a fine because there is absolutely no reason they needed to or should have literally kicked an outnumbered man on the ground. It is obvious that nobody but Shields was thinking of the fallout of the incident.

No matter how good the fights on the card were, this brawl is what people are going to remember. Instead of acting like the athletes they are striving so hard to be accepted as they came off looking like bitchy prima donnas with the self control of a rabid pack of jackals that smell fresh blood. Some may say it was no big deal, or maybe that anything that gets more people talking MMA is a good thing, but in this case that is wrong on both accounts. CBS was already having some reservations about televising these events, and after this the response has been so negative they may decide that airing MMA events is not for them no matter how dead the Saturday night time slot it filled is. For the fighters that means a small loss of legitimacy for themselves and the sport which they may not care about or notice, but you can bet if they can’t find other takers to televise their events and that revenue stream is gone they will notice lighter pockets. When and if that happens, each of the participants of this act of stupidity may be the ones to blame