Strikeforce: Nashville

Eric Kamander says:

Let's not forget that three title fights were televised in HD for free.

Could Strikeforce have done things better, sure. They could have promoted their fighters better, especially Aoki. Strikeforce experienced the inherent dangers of featuring multiple title fights. All things included a title fight can take up from 10-50 minutes of air time. With this card that means the entire televised portion can go from 30-150 minutes. That is a lot of variance to accommodate, and considering what Strikeforce do with their preliminary fights, they are really rolling the dice.

I thought the card was entertaining. I liked all the fights. Even if they weren't the most entertaining affairs, knowing what I know about the fighters, they were all interesting to see play out and there were lots of divisional rankings implications.

I really could care less what the more casual MMA fan thinks. I'm always eager to turn people on to MMA, but I don't really think it is necessary for everyone to love or appreciate MMA the same way I do. We don't have to *defend* MMA to anyone. It isn't going anywhere. There is no "setting the sport back 10 years." When mainstream media criticizes MMA, there is no need to get up in arms. Just relax, because it is nothing more than free media attention.

CBS is not going to stop airing MMA because of the brawl that broke after the main event, no matter how unhappy executives may appear in public.

First of all, that sort of thing happens in mainstream sport all the time, so lets not act like it is unique to MMA and gives the sport a black eye.

Second of all, to the casual audience it may have been the most entertaining part of the entire event. And that is 1) why the brawl won't hurt MMA on CBS, and 2) why CBS might not continue to televise MMA. It all boils down to money and money is evaluated by ratings. The only reason CBS might drop MMA is if not enough people tune in, and while I don't care about any implications of the brawl that broke out, I also am not in favor of sacrificing any of the sporting aspect of MMA to appeal to a larger audience.

I don't see any reason to think that Strikeforce is making the same mistakes that were made by Affliction or EliteXC. EliteXC over paid in unnecessary infrastructure and Affliction put on 1-2 events a year and spent way beyond their means. In contrast Strikeforce runs a tight ship and pays fighters based on what their worth in agreement with CBS and Showtime, not the speculation of an entrepreneur with a bad hair due that knows little about MMA.

Why would anyone criticize Strikeforce for trying to put on fights that people want to see? Strikeforce is trying to make money selling MMA. They maintain a fair amount of integrity in their match ups, and should be applauded. Let's not forget it is fans, not Strikeforce, that make the comparisons to UFC. Strikeforce is not making claims of competing with UFC.

Regarding the brawl, to me it was a very "Do The Right Thing" moment. People are crying "who let Miller into the cage" but regardless of the answer, challengers are frequently let into the cage to challenge the champion. If it was arranged by Coker, it is pretty understandable. Should Miller have waited until Shields' interview was wrapping up? Absolutely, so he jumped the gun there. It was understandable that Melendez didn't want Miller to spoil his partner's moment. It was understandable that Miller didn't want to be pushed around by Melendez. It was understandable that the Diaz brothers didn't want to see their partner get pushed. And there it is. Spike Lee couldn't have choreographed it any better. Now hand out some suspensions, take some precautions to prevent that sort of thing in the future and let's be happy that Radio Raheem didn't get choked out with a night stick.

Honestly I'm more concerned with Yamasaki's standups.