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Those who know me must know that I felt that the most exciting fight ‘on’ the Strikeforce card Saturday, April 17th was the big brawl that broke out while Jake Shields was graciously accepting his win at his closing interview.
Yep, just as Showtime’s announcer Gus Johnson began to quiz our ‘Winner & Still Champion – Jake Shields!’ on his impressive and very imposing win over Dan Henderson – a fight broke out in the Strikeforce cage!
Jason ‘Mayhem’ Miller somehow managed to crawl his way into the cage and into the camera’s view to ask Jake: ‘Where’s my rematch, Buddy?’
It was at that moment that the members of Cesar Gracie’s ‘Scrap Pack’ flew into a rage and began throwing punches to protect ‘their partner’, Jake Shields.
Here’s the scene: Lightweight Champion Gilbert Melendez immediately moved forward to pull ‘Mayhem’ Miller out of camera view, then Shields shoved Miller back and away from him while he talked. Next, other members of Shields’ corner grabbed Jake and pulled him away. Finally, the Diaz brothers barreled in and began throwing punches at Miller. Gus Johnson stepped out of the camera frame and began yelling: ‘Gentleman, We are on Broadcast Television!’ “Really, Gus? You think that statement alone is gonna put an end to the chaos, C’mon?!”
Affectionately known as the ‘Scrap Pack’, three members of the Cesar Gracie Fight Team currently hold titles in the Strikeforce organization. Gilbert Melendez – Lightweight, Nick Diaz – Welterweight, and Jake Shields – Middleweight. Add one more to the mix – Nick’s little brother Nate Diaz and you would basically have 4 of a kind.
It’s funny how the singing, dancing, and acting ‘Rat Pack’ of days of old seem to hold a striking resemblance to our ‘Scrap Pack’ boys of today. You know about the ‘Rat Pack’, Right? Dean Martin, Frank Sinatra, Sammy Davis, Jr., and Peter Lawford – all young attractive guys working the circuit in Las Vegas… We’ve all read the tales of their trouble with Hollywood and Las Vegas show contracts, involvement in barroom brawls, even the breaking of many hearts along the way.
Contract Trouble, Brawls, Broken Hearts? Well, maybe not all that trouble per se, but let’s see if I can make the similarities work…
Nick Diaz has had a few issues, i.e., quitting the Ultimate Fighting Championship in 2006 to sign with Gracie Fighting Championship. Turns out GFC ended up folding under before Nick could even jump into the ring to fight. Then, there was Nick’s infamous stint in Pride FC. After Nick won the fight, it was discovered that his debut performance against Takanori Gomi may have been successful due to the large amount of ‘wacky weed’ found in his bloodstream.
Nick’s list of issues goes on and on, but one important thing for you to remember is that Nick quit the UFC to go to another organization in 2006 and UFC President Dana White never forgets.
Currently, Jake Shields is a free agent with an expired contract and an impressive victory over Dan Henderson. He’s ready to write his ticket to either stay at Strikeforce or move to the UFC. He’s able to fill in the blanks with just about whatever he wants – wouldn’t ya say?
While, I can’t imagine Shields sliding Dana’s champion race horse’s head into the bed during his slumber, I could easily see Shields ‘strongly suggesting’ that Nick ‘come rolling back into the UFC’ once his current contract with Strikeforce expires. What do you think?
Cut from the same stump, Nate is definitely Nick’s blood brother. I believe that so far Nate has not had any issues unless you consider Guilt by Association. I’m sure it’s hard to live in the shadow of Nick Diaz. Nate arrived on the scene through the WEC in 2004. After that, a stop on season 5 of ‘The Ultimate Fighter’ made him more recognizable to all of us. As part of TUF 5 cast, I thought; “Uh, Oh!” when he acted like a complete lunatic and turned into ‘Gangsta Nate’ one evening. Remember how he ‘went off’ after returning to the house and seeing some innocent child-like graffiti tags on the living room wall?
His shocking win – as Manny Gamburyan’s shoulder popped right out of its socket during the championship fight – bolted him to stardom. Nate seems to express himself in interesting ways, both in and outside of the ring. Remember UFC Fight Night 13? Nate finished off Kurt Pellegrino with a ‘sick’ triangle choke, but before the choke on Pellegrino was complete, Diaz made sure that the fans saw his distaste for Pellegrino by gesturing his double ‘bird’ fingers high into the air. Pre and Post fight comments from Nate are usually cryptic, coding ramblings. I usually chalk most of his strange interviews to Nate just having fun with the media.
Gilbert Melendez quietly wraps up the volatile ‘Scrap Pack’. The champion lightweight fighter Melendez has won the interim belt once and defended the full Championship belt twice. Regarding the recent brawl, Gilbert says that he only asked Miller to ‘back up while his boy’ Shields made his comments. That’s when things began to go haywire.
Whether they are related by blood, these four Cesar Gracie Alumni consider themselves Family. They will always have each others’ backs and will always look out for ‘my boys’ and/or ‘my partners’
Minutes later, after everyone had a chance to gather their thoughts and revisit the situation, apologies began to roll. Everyone realized that their actions (all live and televised) were not so nice.
The next days and hours will be interesting to see exactly how Strikeforce and the Tennessee Athletic Commission will deal with handling fines and/or punishments for those involved in the brawl on Saturday night. Another interesting thought is what the UFC and Dana White’s reaction to all of this craziness will be…
All I know is that just as the ‘Rat Pack’ boys were selling the hottest show tickets ‘back in the day’ – The MMA ‘Scrap Pack’ will continue to push the hottest MMA tickets today. I won’t be missing any fight cards that have the Diaz Brothers, Gilbert Melendez, or Jake Shields on it. …And, I’ll make sure that I don’t leave the arena until I’m absolutely sure that an extra fight doesn’t break out during the closing interview.
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