In my opinion, virtually all parties involved are, at least to some extent, to blame.
Jason Miller: Jason should not have interrupted Jake’s moment and his post-fight interview. If nothing else, it was rude and unprofessional. Even if he had been told to confront Jake, he should have waited until after the interview. We have seen Penn face-off against GSP at UFC 87 and Lesnar face off against Carwin at UFC 111, but both times they were brought into the cage and waited until after the post-fight celebration and interview. I don’t think Miller was asked to do it, he simply wanted some of the spotlight and that is bush league. I will say I do applaude your decision to make a public apology. It was the right thing to do.
Gilbert Melendez, Nate and Nick Diaz: This was not a street fight and a member of your posse was not being jumped by a bunch of guys. If a fight did break out, let Jake defend himself. Interjecting yourselves into it was uncalled for and helped make the incident far worse than it needed to be. If you want to be a street thug, stay out of MMA and do it on your own time. For Nick, this is the 3rd embarrassing situation in the last few years. I understanding being true to yourself, but you are hurting yourself, the companies you work for and the sport you claim to love. Nate, you seem all too happy to follow your brother down this destructive career path. If you guys opt to behave like this, don’t complain when headling spots, title shots and/or other opportunities don’t come as quickly as they should. Your actions may well leave the powers that be leery of trusting you to do the right thing. Gilbert has apologized and Nick said "I apologize, it wasn't my fault."
Jake Shields: I can imagine how annoyed/upset you must have been to see Jason Miller stick his nose into your interview. He should not have done so, but was that worth getting into a fight? You have expressed a desire to face the best in the world and to become a standard-barer for the sport. That means acting like one.
Tennessee State Athletic Commission: While it was Strikeforce’s show, it was run under your supervision. Throughout the show, folks seem to wander in and out of the cage. Things could have been run better and now that something has happened, action needs to be taken. Be it reprimands, suspensions and/or fines, examples need to be made so this is less likely to occur in the future. Had the Noons/Diaz incident occurred in Nevada, Cali or another regulated state, it is likely that there would have been consequences. Let us make sure folks don’t think they get away with this kind of thing in the future.
Strikeforce: Some of what I said about the TSAC applies to you: There were, at times, dozens of people milling about in the cage. There needs to be restrictions as to who gets in and when. Event production has been an issue in the past with pacing and getting bouts underway in a timely manner, perhaps it is time to bring in some more experienced folk to handle the actual running of the shows. The UFC was quite smart when they hired Burt Weston, a man that makes sure everything is as smooth as can be. The right person will make sure things are more organized and give your other people less things to worry about.
Gus Johnson: I realize your comments were on the spur of the moment, but had this been a basketball game, would you have said Sometimes these things happen in basketball? Fights do occur in BB and happen more often than in MMA (obviously not including the scheduled bouts!) and your comments were off base and hurt a sport you appear to want to be a part of.
One last person: Caser Gracie. Today, Caser made the following statement:
"So a fight broke out at a fight. That's not a good thing, and I'm not condoning it ... but a lot of people are jumping on this because they're babies. The same night, they had an NBA fight. They want to talk about a fight at an MMA fight between MMA fighters."
"How would it be damaging?" Gracie said. "If you're a sports fan, you're used to seeing fights all the time. It's really, seriously, a bunch of pussies latching on to this and trying to make it a bigger deal than it is. Is it a good thing? It's not a good thing. We're sorry. Everybody involved has apologized.
"But you've got a lot of crybabies that are going to latch on to this to the bitter end, but they're not going to say anything when a hockey game has fights every night. Young sport, old sport – people are making a much bigger deal than this. It's hype; it's all hype."
After reading this, is anyone shocked that it was his students that started the actual fight and did most of the damage? Caser, you are a teacher and are preparing the next generation of the sports’ participants. You mention hockey, but it is an accepted sport today and a lot has been done in the past several decades to reign in the fighting, violence and injuries. The same is true of football. The games today are different than 50 years ago and the players can’t get away with nearly as much. And even when it does happen, penalties are applied and rarely do we see several people jumping on an individual, as your students did. And kicks to a down fighter are not even allowed in the actual bouts, much less afterwards. Once upon a time, both of those sports were seen as barbaric and the players hooligans. It took years and numerous changes to the rules and regulations to get past that. MMA is a young sport and if we want it to eventually be embraced by the media and majority of the public, if we want to see it in all 50 states, if we want it to truly a global pastime….we need to think before acting.
Your own students have, as I said before, been involved in less than professional behavior in the past. They have been criticized but maybe the spotlight should be put on you. While most trainers also work to make their students professionals and ambassadors to the sport, you appear to dismiss this as something unimportant. In the current season of the Ultimate Fighter, Tito actually brought in a P.R person to help the fighters prepare themselves for the future and to help them become true professionals. A little of that would not hurt Team Gracie. Truth be told, that inicident won't help Strikeforce keep going on CBS. Prior to the event, it was made clear CBS wanted everyone on their best behavior.
If you opt to ignore this, if you simply dismiss the pussies and crybabies, you risk having the sport you love pass you by. That would be a real shame. You are a legendary figure and one that should go down in the history books as being a part of the shaping of MMA.
And before I stop, let me say a few words about Dana White and his reaction to this:
Now Dana has offered up his own opinions on this and, not surprisingly, was quick to not simply criticize Strikeforce and CBS, but to attack them as well. Doing so only lessens the value and impact of his comments. Instead of simply addressing what happened, he had to complain about CBS not signing with him. The UFC is not part of what happened thus is not relevant here. Including them also is distracting as some on-line fans have used it to make this more of a UFC vs. Strikeforce situation. Once again, a more thought-out approach would have been more effective. A lesson he can’t seem to learn.
Some have been calling out certainly call Dana out on over-reacting, something he constantly does, and calling him a hypocrite because of the altercation at UFC 45, but jumping up and down about a UFC incident seven years ago is kind of silly. Cabbage/Tank did indeed happen, but it was ages ago and things have changed, both inside the UFC as well as outside, since then. The sport in general is held to higher standards.
The time to talk about it is right now. When actions have been taken, when penalties have been applied, we must move on. There are too many wonderful things to look forward to, to dwell on one regrettable moment in the rich history of our beloved sport.
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