Life is a collection of opportunities. It’s up to you to make the most of them. Sometimes the heavens align and the perfect opportunity plummets to Earth, right there for you to reach out and grab. Capitalizing on these rare chances is the difference between pushing a Benz and living in Malibu and operating out of a broken down shack in south east Alabama and driving a riding lawnmower to your job at the Wal Marts.
Strikeforce has one of these perfect opportunities, waiting there for them to grasp. Sure, the promotion’s last CBS show went off the air after a brutal brawl between Jason “Mayhem” Miller and members of the Cesar Gracie crew, led by the always angry Nick Diaz. Some fans laughed, some were appalled. Our own Brent Brookhouse fell in the latter category:
First of all allow me to rant. I’m embarrassed for the sport of mixed martial arts. I don’t fault Strikeforce for the brawl and honestly I think it’s unfair to fault Miller. Miller went in to the cage and did some “thunder stealing” yes. But when the repercussion for that became gang assault I am not sure. Did we see Matt Hughes’ boys jump Georges St. Pierre for stating that he was “not impressed by his performance?”
I entirely hope that we see the Cesar Gracie camp members involved in the attack charged with assault and forced to own up to their behavior in court. I also would like to see both Diaz brothers, Gilbert Melendez and anyone else involved with the assault suffer a massive suspension. Anything under one year would be too little in my eyes.
No matter how you feel about the confrontation in the cage, it is now an opportunity. No MMA clip in recent memory got more mainstream play and mainstream press is a precious commodity when you aren’t named Dana White and your promotion isn’t called the UFC. The now iconic photo by Keith Mills tells a story you couldn’t pay a thousand writers to create. Miller and Diaz have a built in back story, both can sell a fight, and, by the way, it’s also a compelling matchup. Win, win, win, right? Not so fast.
This is Strikeforce remember? The promotion that couldn’t pull the trigger on a heated rivalry between Diaz and KJ Noons two years ago (that one was Elite XC). That couldn’t get Fedor Emelianenko into the cage with their champion Alistair Overeem, that couldn’t even milk the star power of Bobby Lashley before he was exposed in front of a national audience. Suffice to say, Strikeforce is ready and willing not to make the obvious match, not to cash the check begging to be written, and not to make the matches the fans are clamoring for.
And it looks like they are making yet another mistake.Today Strikeforce confirmed with MMA Weekly that instead of taking on Miller, Diaz will once again fight the bland Noons in a battle no one has thought about in a calender year:
“Yes, this fight is set for Oct. 9,” Mike Afromowitz, Strikeforce Director of Communications, later confirmed to MMAWeekly.com.
Strikeforce: San Jose coverage
Miller, for certain, will be devastated. The host of MTV’s Bully Beatdown has done yeoman’s work, the kind of public relations Strikeforce never seems to be able to accomplish, to sell this fight to the MMA public. In a wonderful video by Fanhouse’s Ariel Helwani, Miller makes his case:
ARIEL HELWANI: “Well, you want to do the that. Does that mean that he doesn’t want to do the fight?”
MAYHEM MILLER: “Obviously. I mean… that’s what I’m getting because everybody wants to see the fight. Everyone’s like, ‘hey man, when you’re going to whip Nick Diaz’s ass?’ I hear that like 10 times a day, you know, and that’s just at my dinner table. You know? But… it’s just like one of those things like I’m in the middle of this weird publicity war where people think that I don’t want the fight. I want the fight. Hell yeah I want the fight. Of course I want the fight because I will whip his ass and make him look bad doing it.”
According to Miller, Diaz killed the fight. He wanted, Strikeforce President Scott Coker wanted it, and so did the fans:
ARIEL HELWANI: “Have you talked to Scott Coker about the fight?”
MAYHEM MILLER: “YEAH! He wants it, I think. I think that he wants it. Scott Coker wants the fight. I’ve heard directly from the line Scott Coker wants the fight. Of course, why wouldn’t he want the fight? Two exciting guys who talk smack and fight hard. I know. I respect him as a fighter, BUT as a person man he’s running scared.”
ARIEL HELWANI: “You seem a little fired up.”
MAYHEM MILLER: “My upper lip is sweating, that’s how fired up I’m getting. All right, let me calm down a little bit. NO, I don’t want to calm down!”
ARIEL HELWANI: “All right. You’re a 185′er, he’s a 170-pounder.”
MAYHEM MILLER: “NO, NO, NO, NO, let’s squash that right now. The whole 170 thing, he made that up. He fought, what, Frank Shamrock at 183. He fought Scott Smith at 182. All of a sudden when he has to fight Mayhem, he’s a 170-pounder, Oh, okay, very convenient that you’re a 170-pounder now. All right, cool, he a 170-pounder.”
This would have been the most talked about Strikeforce fight of the fall. Instead we’re going to get just another fight, with just another bland build. I never thought I’d say this to Nick Diaz, a fighter I once called “the greatest man to ever live.” But the situation demands it:
Don’t be scared homie.