Shitty event and even shittier behavior from Diaz brothers and Melendez. Bitches!

I wasn't overly impressed with the card as I was expecting more; perhaps some finishes.

King Mo done well to use his wrestling against Mousasi. Not sure what Mousasi's gameplan was but he looked terrible.

Meledenz controlled the fight like I thought he would. Good performance.

Really surprised that the Hendo vs Shields fight didn't get finished. Both guys had opportunities to end it. Hendo in the first when he had him rocked. Shields during the fight when he was in mount and especially in the fifth when Hendo was putting his arm straight up numerous times.

The fight at the end what to say.....Well what do you think will happen when you put the Diaz brother's and their camp in the cage then throw in the colorful loud speaking Miller? Miller did get in Shields face a little too much, and interrupted his interview, Melendez done the right thing by trying to move him back a little, but shields should not have pushed him the way he did, but it opened the door for the punk brothers (Diaz) to start their antics. Yeah Nate was clearly throwing punches and kicking Miller while others were holding him. A disgrace to the sport of MMA. Then Gus Johnson the dickhead commentator saying this happens in MMA, and did you see Maurello Renallo trying to push his way through shields into the broadcast when Gus Johnson was interviewing Shields outside the cage afterwards, and holding his microphone out in camera view lol.

posted on Nate Diaz own website

http://www.nathandiaz.com/2010/04/graci ... click.html



Idiots - This really made me feel bad

Brawl-marred night leaves many questions


By Dave Meltzer, Yahoo! Sports Apr 18, 3:45 am EDT


NASHVILLE, Tenn. – Jake Shields scored far and away the biggest victory of his career Saturday night as he overcame nearly being finished in the first round to outwrestle two-time Olympian Dan Henderson for the next four rounds and retain his Strikeforce middleweight title.

But what happened next turned out to be the highlight of the evening to the crowd at Bridgestone Arena, and the lowlight to everyone else involved with the show: a brawl in the cage in which Shields’ teammates beat down Jason “Mayhem” Miller.

Miller, who won a preliminary fight earlier in the evening, showed up uninvited during Shields’ post-fight interview. He demanded a rematch from Shields, who convincingly beat him to win the Strikeforce title in November.

At that point, Shields shoved Miller. Gilbert Melendez, Shields’ former roommate and best friend, then jumped on Miller. Then the whole Cesar Gracie team jumped in, with Nate Diaz in particular throwing punches and Nick Diaz also getting involved. CBS announcer Gus Johnson cut the interview to go to a commercial as officials tried to get everyone out of the cage.

Moments later, Strikeforce CEO Scott Coker was apologetic about the brawl that ended the nearly three-hour live broadcast.

“There is no room for something like that in this sport and we are not going to reward that kind of behavior,” said Coker, who, when talking about a potential next opponent for Shields, brought up Ronaldo “Jacare” Souza, and avoided mentioning Miller.

Coker, who said he didn’t see the brawl as he was backstage getting ready to set up the press conference, said he would have to review the tape before deciding what action to take, including possible fines or suspensions. But he blamed Miller for trying to steal the spotlight that Shields had earned in the biggest win of his career.

The question now becomes how Saturday’s events affect MMA’s future on CBS. The card featured three championship fights featuring men ranked near the top of their respective weight classes – Henderson, Shinya Aoki and Gegard Mousasi. All three lost their respective fights, but none of the three title fights – Melendez over Aoki for the lightweight title, “King Mo” Lawal beating Mousasi to win the light heavyweight title or Shields vs. Henderson – were particularly crowd-pleasing. Combine that with the show going 45 minutes long, pushing back the evening newscasts, and the brawl, and there’s a question of how CBS will react to a sport not yet fully established on network television.

“I don’t think [the brawl is] going to be an issue because I don’t think it’s going to happen again, or at least I hope it’s not,” said CBS programming vice president Kelly Kahl. “It’s not what the sport needs. Things get out of control at times in every sport.”

If Miller was trying to create his own scenario to get a title rematch, it may have backfired, at least for now.

“He came into the cage and got in my face,” Shields said about Miller, the host of the MTV show “Bully Beatdown.” “I felt disrespected. I wasn’t surprised because that’s how he is. He’s a disrespectful guy.”

Shields said he’d be willing to give Miller a rematch if he earned it.

“I’m over it [the brawl],” said Shields. “I think if Miller wants a rematch, he needs to beat a tough opponent, not the guy he beat tonight [Tim Stout, who came in with a 12-8 record]. I beat Dan Henderson and who did he beat? Let him beat Jacare Souza or Dan Henderson. I expect Miller to be disrespectful. Isn’t he always disrespectful to everyone? It’s his personality. We’ve been friends in the past and enemies in the past.”

Shields (25-4-1) extended his winning streak to 14 straight fights in beating Henderson (25-8), who came into the fight as a 4-to-1 favorite and as one of Strikeforce’s two biggest attractions on its roster with heavyweight Fedor Emelianenko.

The heavily pro-Henderson crowd of 8,196 booed the match frequently, and even booed the decision though there was no doubt that Shields completely dominated the final four rounds.

He survived a first round in which Henderson knocked him down on the first punch and had him so woozy that Shields said he remembers almost nothing that happened until late in the round. A few moments later, Henderson was on the verge of finishing Shields with punches on the ground, and the best you could say was that Shields survived the round.

But things turned in the second round. Henderson said he couldn’t explain it other than he got tired, saying he had a tougher weight cut than he expected. Henderson was frustrated with his performance, because not only did Shields take him down six times over the next four rounds, but Henderson couldn’t get off his back. Henderson’s strategy was turning to his stomach and giving up his back to escape, because he respected Shields’ ability to finish with a choke.

Shields’ ability to constantly not just take Henderson down but keep him there and get mount positions begged questions about if Henderson’s age (39) became the difference.

Shields won the last four rounds to take the match 49-46, 49-45 (based on a 10-8 second round) and 48-45 (with Henderson getting a 10-8 first and Shields a 10-8 second). Yahoo! Sports had the score 49-45 Shields.

The win puts Shields in a unique position. When Elite XC went down, with Shields as its welterweight champion, he had his contract renegotiated with Strikeforce, which didn’t include a champion’s clause that would bind him for the duration of his title reign. His contract is running out and he will soon be a free agent.

Despite criticism that Shields isn’t an exciting fighter or that he has questionable stand-up, his winning streak that dates back more than five years includes names like Henderson, Miller, Robbie Lawler, Paul Daley, Yushin Okami and Carlos Condit. The win over Henderson would validate him to where if he were to sign with the UFC, he could viably be put into a fight right away with Georges St. Pierre.

When asked about his future, Shields said that all he wanted to do after three hard months of training for this fight was to get out of the country and go to the beach for a week. He said his manager (his father, Jack Shields) and Coker could discuss things and he’ll worry about it when he gets back.

End article



I mean, this is ridiculous: "But he blamed Miller for trying to steal the spotlight that Shields had earned in the biggest win of his career."

so now if you challenge someone its ok to have a whole team beat him up? Imo Miller didnt do anything that hasnt been done a million times before, and was not rude or insulting, simply asked for a rematch.

Didn't see the brawl as I watched the single fights pack and didn't know the Mayhem fight was broadcast on the full show, so didn't bother watching it on TV last night. Always a shame when shit like that happens though. Just looks so bad for the sport and unprofessional for the fighters.

The event was okay - 3 of 5 - and another awful night for my picks (main card at least - don't know the prelims yet).

Mousasi was appauling and completely lacked a stand-up effort. Long before the end of the fight he was just walking straight into Mo with maybe a couple of lazy punches, almost gift-wapped for a takedown. Mo did his gameplan and did it well, but gassing in the second is pretty poor and he was lucky in that way that Mousasi never got going.

Can't fault Melendez - he did what he had to, although he was more risky than I thought he was going to be. Aoki shut down any attempt at stand-up early on, which really killed the entertainment in the fight, and then his shots became really poor also. I wonder if the rematch in Japan will go ahead after all and how it will be different there.

Henderson was useless past the first round and even though I'd picked him, I was delighted to see Shields win. Think it was a combination of Hendo gassing and just being way too confident in a one-punch knockout from his right hand - something he's been doing in his last few fights (although it worked against Bisping of course). Shields was excellent in his work rate, his strength, and his heart. Still needs to put some effort into his GnP though - those tippy-taps he was doing from mount aren't going to finish many decent guys.

Like I said, haven't seen the Miller fight as yet.

Production was okay, although how this event ran 45 minutes over its slot, I don't know - surely the provision was there for the three fights to go the distance? The Miller fight and stuff either side of it didn't take 45 minutes, right? I'm also still not keen on Gus Johnson coming back, as it gives the show the EliteXC touch (he's okay, but having Ranallo and others there already, he really does feel like a pointless extra forced to be there by CBS).

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yw5qPUOCts8][/youtube]

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1XsC_ImfmUA][/youtube]

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JJYtWuWshYM][/youtube]

Oh dear...What can i say i did talk to jonny and co and said it was a bad idea having a card with three title fights on it. Strike force missed a chance to build some profiles for fighters instead they showed a Hendo that looked like he had nothing after the first round, a camp of twats that jump on miller because.."he was there like he was there" said Diaz which we are ment to take as an apology. Dana must have pissed his pants first at Hendo then at the fracus after..that was what gave mma a bad name

Was shocked that gaygard did not deal with the take downs, king mo did well but now this dudes head will be so big it wont fit in the cage.

Melendez dominated for 5 rounds and put a beating on his opposition was an ok fight but overall to many title fights for a two hour show..CBS must be sick of backing turkeys.

With the exception of the Mousasi/Lawal fight, the card went pretty much like I thought it would (I didn't expect the brawl at the end, of course )

Takeaway #1 - STRIKEFORCE NEEDS ELBOWS! I think all of the main card fights might have been closer to being finished if the fighters were allowed to elbow.

Gegard looked absolutely horrible. I didn't think he would stop those takedowns but I had no idea he'd lay flat on his back for most of the fight. He had almost no standup and made little attempt to do anything off his back besides winging some arm punches (again, elbows would have been great here). Lawal impressed me by staying in the fight and doing what it took to win even when he was clearly tired after round 2. Conversely Mousasi just faded and looked confused as the fight went on.

Melendez v. Aoki - I thought Gil might finish Aoki via TKO, but I wasn't surprised the fight played out the way it did given their styles. Great fight.

Not that I was surprised by the crowd response, but how big an asshole do you have to be to boo Jake Shields after that performance? He took a grade-A ass whipping for 5 minutes and then regrouped and DOMINATED one of the best fighters in MMA history. Seriously, Henderson has been fighting for about 15 years and has been finished THREE times - what more did you want from Shields, who is really a welterweight? Rampage couldn't finish him either and he's a light HW. And let's not forget Henderson's wrestling pedigree when we talk about how easily Shields was grabbing those single legs and getting Dan down. How many times do you think Dan has been mounted in his MMA career? Shields did it repeatedly in this fight. I picked Shields to win and felt like an idiot for the first five minutes - I really thought he was done coming into round 2.

Speaking of picks, I took a bath on those horrible prelims (3-3, 6-4 overall). It's so hard to pick fights when you get guys that should be competing at Wild Bill's Fight Night shows. There was almost no tape or information on any of the 12 guys who fought on the undercard. It's frustrating doing well on the main card and getting screwed on the prelims.

I understand your frustration, but still very good that you picked the main card. I got them all wrong ... But would it be more preferable, if we instead had merged the main card from strikeforce with the top-fights from the next DREAM-event? This way we dont need to include unknown fighters. What do you think?

edit: Oh, there actually is no DREAM-event anyway, but maybe there are other possibilities?