When all is said and done and the smoke has cleared, it could be that the biggest and most talked about fight of the night was the Jason “Mayhem” Miller VS. Gilbert Melendez, Nick Diaz, Nate Diaz, Jake Shields, et al fight.
What was supposed to be big news, that is Jake Shields owned Dan Henderson on the ground, was completely overshadowed when Mayhem Miller stepped into the ring during Shields’ post-fight interview, and started joking around about a rematch. At first you’ll see Shields joking back and tapping Miller, but then Gilbert Melendez starting getting in Miller’s face, and pushed at him. At that point, Miller started shoving back, stepped too close to Shields, who then shoved Miller almost to the other side of the ring.
It didn’t get any better from there. In a free-for-all that included Big John McCarthy and a few Tennessee State Athletic Commission officials who were trying to break up the fight, there were at least 5 pro-fighters, including Gilbert Melendez, Nick Diaz, Nate Diaz, and more from the Gracie fight camp, pounding on Mayhem Miller. Unbelieveable. And all because he chose bad timing (so what else is new for Miller?) to talk about a re-match with Jake Shields.
Seriously – was there really a need for all those fighters to assault Miller? And yes, I say assault, because in spite of his bad timing, what Miller did wasn’t bad enough to get the Bully Beatdown by 4-5 professional MMA fighters. A tongue lashing perhaps. I mean – fighters who train together stay together and for sure they have each other’s back. But an all-out brawl was totally unnecessary.
In case you didn’t see it – take a look here:
Here’s a video of Nick Diaz “apologizing” for the pandemonium (and poor Nick – he ended up with a knot on the back of his head):
Good thing they weren’t trying to “keep it gangster or whatever” right? And while Diaz says it wasn’t his fault and he didn’t start it, he sure jumped in and helped to stop it, so fault and who started it is not really an issue. Like I tell my kids: “it doesn’t matter who started it, what matters is did you get involved when you shouldn’t have? If so, then you get to share the consequences – now go to your room for a time out!”
Here’s what Scott Coker had to say about the bedlam:
So what are your thoughts? Did Mayhem cause this chaos and get what he deserved, or was it the Gracie camp? And should these fighters be charged with assault and criminally prosecuted, and/or fined, or should they just get to walk away?
Personally I think the Gracie boys need to go to their room for a time out.
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