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The Strikeforce Brawl is Getting a lot of National Attention
It looked like Strikeforce was having a very good night on Saturday with their free card on CBS. The card itself was exciting, it was a fight card that was loaded with some tremendous names and compelling fights, and it was capped off by the under-publicized Jake Shields picking himself up off the mat in the first round against the legendary Dan Henderson to come back and completely dominate the fight. When you think about that alone, it was amazing what Jake Shields was able to do. He was fighting his final fight of his current contract with Strikeforce against a legend that was handpicked and brought over from UFC to take the champion out. It didn’t work that way and Jake Shields made Dan Henderson look like anything but a legend. Unfortunately, his victory was overshadowed by what happened inside the cage following the fight when a brawl erupted.
Strikeforce is trying to grow more and more and get to the same level as the UFC and while this brawl might have given Strikeforce some publicity, I don’t think it was the kind of publicity that they were looking for. While it was publicity and people are continuing to talk about it, I would venture a guess that they would much rather get recognition for what happens inside the cage during a fight as opposed to what happens after the fight during a post-fight interview with Gus Johnson.Gus Johnson was doing the post-fight interview when the brawl erupted and he joined Carmichael Dave on KHTK in Sacramento to talk about the attention this brawl is getting and what kind of criticism he is receiving for some of his comments. Also, Jake Shields the guy that was partially responsible for the brawl taking place, joined Hardcore Sports Radio with the Fight Show to not only talk about his win over Dan Henderson, but also to talk about the brawl, how big of a deal he thinks it really was, and how much it may affect Strikeforce being that it was on National T.V. on CBS.
On how he feels about his win over Dan Henderson:
Jake Shields: “Everything went well. I’m a perfectionist and I certainly made a lot of mistakes in the fight, but I beat Dan Henderson so I can’t be too hard on myself.”
On whether or not he was knocked out in the first round:
Jake Shields: “I didn’t know I got knocked down until I watched it last night, so I can’t tell you what happened there. I thought I went for a shot or a trip and I know my head was a little fogged up. I saw him on top of me, I went for a leg, and that’s all I really remember. I don’t know exactly what happened.”
On what happened after the fight and how things got so out of hand:
Jake Shields: “I was just sitting there doing the interview and all of the sudden Jason (‘Mayhem’ Miller) came out of nowhere and got in my face and even shoulder bumped me. I was trying to figure out what was going on. Why he was in there. He had a really rude look on his face and then when he shoulder bumped me I probably overreacted a little bit, but with the emotions running high after the fight and him being disrespectful, I pushed him. From there a couple of my teammates pushed him a little bit and maybe hit him a couple of times. I think a couple of his guys jumped in as well, it kinda got a little hectic, and was hard seeing what was going on. In the whole scheme of things, I don’t think it was that big of a deal. I think everyone overreacted. Mayhem shouldn’t have gotten in there, I probably shouldn’t have pushed him, and my teammates shouldn’t have gotten involved as well. But we’re a close nit team and I think my teammates felt really disrespected and just wanted to back me up and help me out.”
On whether or not it’s even more unfortunate because it happened on CBS:
Jake Shields: “That is unfortunate getting in a brawl on CBS because it is so new so hopefully something like won’t affect it because the sport is so good. I think there was brawl in basketball, but basketball is a much more widely accepted sport. Obviously we have to be careful of those things, but I think some people jump on it too much. In the grand scheme of things, yeah the brawl shouldn’t have happened, but nobody got hurt. A few pushing, a couple of punches got thrown, and it wasn’t really that big of a deal, but people like blowing it out of proportion.”
On the exposure that this fight is getting:
Gus Johnson: “You’re absolutely right. The internet is on fire talking about what happened. It was an unfortunate situation that took place in the cage after the fight, but in fight sports you see this all the time especially in boxing. I was at Bowe-Golota when guys were getting hit over the head with chairs. A guy like Mayhem Miller comes into the cage and says ‘hey buddy how about my rematch?’ He was being the wise guy, but how often do you see that in boxing as well? You see Shane Mosley go up to Floyd Mayweather after he wins the fight and says ‘hey when are you going to fight me?’ I don’t think that’s anything new. It’s just the way it was handled in those moments, it was just the wrong thing to happen, and it was an unfortunate situation. Although I think we have to understand there is a dark side to everything. These guys are very serious about what they do. They’re mixed martial artists and they have a lot of pride and there’s a darkness associated with this sport and we see it with all sports, fighting. Unfortunately that happened and hopefully we can move past it.”
On the comments that he made following the fight about these things happening in testosterone filled sports:
Gus Johnson: “You so eloquently put that situation into words for me that I haven’t figured out yet. I’m in a cage, the cage door is locked because they don’t want anyone else to get into the cage, and men are fighting. This wasn’t a simulation, this wasn’t a game, and men, big men, strong men, and trained men were fighting. Almost as if you were in a barroom brawl. I was just trying to stay calm and have the presence of mind to say these things happen sometimes. All sports. The Boston Celtics and the Miami Heat got into a fight in game one of their playoff series, it happens in hockey all the time, and the benches clear in baseball. It’s part of life. There’s a dark side to everything in my opinion. We have to understand there is a dark side. In terms of MMA guys that are saying whatever they are saying, you gotta understand in fight sports you have situations like this and that was the only thing that I was trying to point out. I’ve seen brawls in boxing rings a few times in my life as a broadcaster calling different shows. Opinions are opinions and that’s cool too, but at the same time I think that that was a very unique situation that was handled during the moment as best as it could’ve been handled.”
Listen to Gus Johnson on KHTK with Carmichael Dave here
Listen to Jake Shields on the Fight Show on Hardcore Sports Radio here
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