I’ll admit it. I was pretty disgusted with my picking performance and turned off CBS as soon as the final bell rang on Jake Shields’ commanding performance. When I saw that the headlines contained words like “brawl” or “melee.” I had to fire up the old Tivo. What I saw shocked me.
If you are looking for a column about how the brawl was “bad for the sport,” you came to the wrong place. Mike Tyson chewed on another man’s ear, and yet the sweet science rolls on. Jermaine O’Neal punched a Piston’s fan who looked like Turtle from “Entourage,” and the NBA isn’t going anywhere. The most shocking thing about that night was the fact that Jason “Mayhem” Miller thinks he deserves another shot at Shields’ title.
“Mayhem” and Nobuhiko Takada are the only two fighters in the history of the sport who were able to garner huge amounts of fame despite the fact that they have accomplished very little in MMA. Comparing Miller to Takada might be a little bit harsh, but let’s take a look at his resume.
Career Record: 23-7 1NC
Quality Wins: Tim Kennedy (2007), Robbie Lawler (2006) and Denis Kang (2003)
Record against UFC veterans: 5-3
Wins last three years: Tim Stout (9-8), Kala Hose (7-3), Katsuyori Shibata (4-7-1), Tim Kennedy (11-2) and Hiromitsu Miura (9-6)
Over the last three years Miller has beaten quite the hodgepodge of fighters. Hose is a believer in the “Just Scrap” philosophy, and “Bubba” McDaniel submitted him in less than a minute. Shibata is a professional wrestling stud whose record precedes him.
His one quality win in the last three years came against Tim Kennedy, who is a quality middleweight gatekeeper. Kennedy biggest wins are against Ryan McGivern, Nick Thompson and “Mayhem” in 2003. Not only is this Miller’s only quality win in the last years, but he got beat up pretty badly in the first round.
Excerpt of Sherdog play-by-play of Miller vs. Kennedy
Round 1
Kennedy survived an early slip to trip Miller to the floor. Kennedy landed a knee to what looked like the chest, but referee Kerry Hatley warned Kennedy ad restarted the fight to standing. A left and a right hand landed for Kennedy as Miller rushed forward with kicks and a flurry of punches. Kennedy is finding Miller’s chin with both fists. Kennedy tripped Miller to the canvas and advanced to side-control and briefly, the mount. Miller used good legwork to get half-guard, but Kennedy moved to Miller’s back.Scott Holmes score: 10-9 Kennedy
Sherdog.com Staff score: 10-9 Kennedy
Miller’s record against UFC veterans is also a tad deceiving. Of his five wins, three have come against a murderer’s row of Ronald Jhun, Falaniko Vitale and Lodune Sincaid.
When you compare his resume to the one that belongs to Shields it is not even close.
Career Record: 25-4-1
Quality Wins: Dan Henderson (2010), Jason Miller (2009), Robbie Lawler (2009), Paul Daley (2008), Carlos Condit (2006) and Yushin Okami (2006)
Record against UFC veterans: 12-1
Wins last three years: Dan Henderson (25-8), Jason Miller (23-7), Robbie Lawler (17-5), Paul Daley (23-8-2), Nick Thompson (38-12-1), Mike Pyle (18-7-1), Renato Verissimo (7-5) and Ido Pariente (8-4)
“Mayhem” never signed with the UFC. You can’t really blame the guy. He can make more money outside the promotion. However, Shields has never fought under the UFC banner either, and he proves that you can put together an impressive resume elsewhere.
Miller did not deserve a shot at the Strikeforce title the first time, and it is shocking that he thinks a win over Tim Stout puts him back into contention. Strikeforce is lacking depth in a lot of their divisions, but middleweight is not one of them.
I agree with this. Mayhem is known as a disrespectful person. Just look at the Strikeforce weigh ins (https://prommanow.com/index.php/2010/04/16/strikeforce-nashville-weigh-ins-video/), he threw his shirt on the ring girl’s face. What a dick.
You’re right, he does NOT deserve another shot at Shields and it’s laughable to think so. 80% of his career or more has come from his personality. You can’t blame him for that though. I actually like Mayhem, but he will never be top of the food chain fighter.
You said he was a dick and then said you liked him. This is my favorite comment ever.
Hahaha… that was pretty childish to throw his shirt on the girl, but he did get jumped at the end by a whole gang of fighters so… guess he got his payback.
Soooooo… that makes what the thug boys at gracie did, ok? Am I getting the jist of your “article” correct?
This is not about Mayhem…this is about a bunch of thugs that cant control their temper.
Actually if you read the quote-unquote article the gist of it is that “Mayhem” did not deserve a title shot against Shields and does not deserve another one. The article does not say anything about who was at fault for the brawl, and honestly I don’t care at all. Reading is fundamental
Miller came very close to finishing sheilds with a RNC, but the bell rang. Every other fighter seems to get immediate rematches. I think miller deserves it very well. He he went to decision with GSP and Jacare. They have wins over the same opponents. And what does it matter if tim kennedy beat him up in round 1, Miller won the fight. Henderson made sheilds look like an amatuer in round 1, as will anyone with good precise striking. He will be in big trouble if he fights any one with good takedown defense. You could probably type a better article without Jake’s nuts in your mouth.
Mr. Dawg does bring up a good point, and that is that in fighting winning is the most important thing. So, it really doesn’t matter how poorly “Mayhem” performed against Tim Kennedy in the first round. I just thought it was interesting to point out that in the last three years he has one impressive win and even in that fight he had to come back from a one-round deficit. With that being said, do you really think one rear-naked choke attempt in a 25-minute fight warrants a rematch?
Good analysis man. You come with the fact, and thus hard to argue with.
On that point, I don’t know what to think about MMA. Shields did nothing to finish that fight, Miller at least tried to strike and finish with sub attempt. Why are there any rematches then? Shields is boring and only knows how to finish fights against people with poor sub defense. He had Dan in full mount 3-4 times and did no damage to Henderson besides a few scrapes and light bruising. I am just saying Miller and Shields was a very competitive fight with Miller going for the finish and shields humping his legs. I guess Serra could still be the champ because he destroyed GSP and did not need to give a rematch.
GSP beat Koscheck and Hughes to earn a rematch with Serra. Do you think a win over Tim Stout is equivalent to that?
Who did Shogun and BJ beat to get a rematch. Also on a similar note who did BJ beat to deserve a title shot against GSP. Who did Silva and Lesnar beat to get title shots? Leben and Herring? Not exactly true contenders. You are trying to use MMA math in a sense and it is irrelevant. Aoki, Mousasi, Rogers, list goes on about gift title shots. Chuck destroyed Tito twice, and we were about to see an unnecessary third fight. Its about fighter availability and what can be marketed. Miller was trying to market and hype a fight. I don’t see a point in reading to much into this, let Strikeforce be the ones to determine who fights who. However you have the right to voice your opinion however biased it is, you are the author I am not.
The article is an opinion editorial, so naturally it is biased, but thanks for approval.
BJ beat both top caliber opponents in the UFC at the time when it was very thin in the LW division. He also held a very close split decision loss to GSP. Mayhem held a dominating UD loss to Shields with one RNC attempt that SHields didn’t worry about because time was running out in the round. Shogun got an immediate rematch because the first match with Machida was a controversial decision that pretty much everyone thought was wrong. Chuck was about to fight Tito again because neither are particularly relevant anymore and Dana was trying to get Chuck to go off into retirement on a win. When did Aoki have a gift title shot? Lesnar was a marketing cash cow, and both top contenders were fighting each other at the time after Arlovski left and Werdum got smashed. Silva got a fight against Franklin because MW was a notoriously shallow division in 2006, he was on a 2 fight win streak (both unbelievable KOs), and Leben was on quite a streak himself.
Miller was trying to market and hype a fight that he had no business being in. The same thing that Dong Hyun Kim did close to a year later.
It didn’t work out for him. He got beat up, and never fought for SF again.