STRIKEFORCE:NASHVILLE 4/17/10
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Cesar Gracie says reaction to "Strikeforce: Nashville" brawl is overblown, hypocritical
Cesar Gracie is of two minds regarding the post-fight melee this past Saturday at "Strikeforce: Nashville" that involved four of his top athletes.
He is aware such incidents are not positive for the sport. But he also thinks the reaction to it is far overblown.
"My biggest problem with what happened is that it distracted from the fights," Gracie told MMAjunkie.com (www.mmajunkie.com) on Sunday. "(We) just saw two of my very best guys have masterful performances – tactically, physically and everything – and people are talking about the post-fight fight that should have never happened."
Two of Gracie's top students, Jake Shields and Gilbert Melendez, defended their respective middleweight and lightweight titles on the CBS-televised fight card. Trouble started after Shields defeated Dan Henderson when middleweight Jason "Mayhem" Miller marched into the cage and demanded a rematch. Shields shoved Miller and triggered an in-cage fight that involved nearly all the Gracie team members who were present, including Nick Diaz and Nate Diaz, who weren't even fighting that night. Melendez also participated.
Immediately after the incident, Shields apologized, and Melendez, Nick Diaz and Miller later made apologies to Strikeforce officials and the public.
Gracie, who watched the Strikeforce event but did not attend, said he had spoken to his team since the incident.
"I told them that this distracts from the real fights," he said. "It doesn't help anybody. Nobody's getting paid for fighting after the fight. It makes crybabies come out there and talk about it more, and then we have to do interviews talking about crybabies."
Immediately after Saturday's event, fans lit up Internet message boards in outrage over the incident.
Gracie said the "crybabies" are part of a double standard between MMA and other sports.
"I went to a hockey game, a (San Jose) Sharks game last week; there were three fights where the teams were fighting each other," he said. "That was at a hockey game where there are supposed to be no fights.
"So a fight broke out at a fight. That's not a good thing, and I'm not condoning it ... but a lot of people are jumping on this because they're babies. The same night, they had an NBA fight. They want to talk about a fight at an MMA fight between MMA fighters."
Gracie disagreed with fans and pundits who said the incident could turn public perception against MMA.
"How would it be damaging?" he said. "If you're a sports fan, you're used to seeing fights all the time. It's really, seriously, a bunch of pussies latching on to this and trying to make it a bigger deal than it is. Is it a good thing? It's not a good thing. We're sorry. Everybody involved has apologized.
"But you've got a lot of crybabies that are going to latch on to this to the bitter end, but they're not going to say anything when a hockey game has fights every night. Young sport, old sport – people are making a much bigger deal than this. It's hype; it's all hype."
Gracie said Shields could have handled the post-fight incursion by dissing Miller, the star of MTV's reality show, "Bully Beatdown."
"'Who are you again? I just beat Dan Henderson. Your fight wasn't even telecast,'" Gracie said. "That would have been the professional way to handle that, not pushing the guy, not throwing punches when he came flying back at my guys. It wasn't the smart way to handle it. It was the emotional way to handle it."
On Sunday, Gracie apologized to Jeffrey Mullen, the director of the Tennessee Athletic Commission, as well as Strikeforce officials. He said no immediate sanctions have been placed on his fighters.
Today, Mullen told MMAjunkie.com that an investigation has been opened into the April 17 melee.
UFC president Dana White today blasted Showtime, Strikeforce's broadcast partner, for their handling of the matter. He said he spoke to Nate Diaz, though he did not disclose the nature of the conversation, and said the UFC has no plans to discipline the fighter.
Gracie hopes the incident's fallout will steer the sport in a more positive direction.
"Let the dust settle a little bit," he said. "This stuff happens. Let's grow from it and not do it again."
Cesar Gracie is of two minds regarding the post-fight melee this past Saturday at "Strikeforce: Nashville" that involved four of his top athletes.
He is aware such incidents are not positive for the sport. But he also thinks the reaction to it is far overblown.
"My biggest problem with what happened is that it distracted from the fights," Gracie told MMAjunkie.com (www.mmajunkie.com) on Sunday. "(We) just saw two of my very best guys have masterful performances – tactically, physically and everything – and people are talking about the post-fight fight that should have never happened."
Two of Gracie's top students, Jake Shields and Gilbert Melendez, defended their respective middleweight and lightweight titles on the CBS-televised fight card. Trouble started after Shields defeated Dan Henderson when middleweight Jason "Mayhem" Miller marched into the cage and demanded a rematch. Shields shoved Miller and triggered an in-cage fight that involved nearly all the Gracie team members who were present, including Nick Diaz and Nate Diaz, who weren't even fighting that night. Melendez also participated.
Immediately after the incident, Shields apologized, and Melendez, Nick Diaz and Miller later made apologies to Strikeforce officials and the public.
Gracie, who watched the Strikeforce event but did not attend, said he had spoken to his team since the incident.
"I told them that this distracts from the real fights," he said. "It doesn't help anybody. Nobody's getting paid for fighting after the fight. It makes crybabies come out there and talk about it more, and then we have to do interviews talking about crybabies."
Immediately after Saturday's event, fans lit up Internet message boards in outrage over the incident.
Gracie said the "crybabies" are part of a double standard between MMA and other sports.
"I went to a hockey game, a (San Jose) Sharks game last week; there were three fights where the teams were fighting each other," he said. "That was at a hockey game where there are supposed to be no fights.
"So a fight broke out at a fight. That's not a good thing, and I'm not condoning it ... but a lot of people are jumping on this because they're babies. The same night, they had an NBA fight. They want to talk about a fight at an MMA fight between MMA fighters."
Gracie disagreed with fans and pundits who said the incident could turn public perception against MMA.
"How would it be damaging?" he said. "If you're a sports fan, you're used to seeing fights all the time. It's really, seriously, a bunch of pussies latching on to this and trying to make it a bigger deal than it is. Is it a good thing? It's not a good thing. We're sorry. Everybody involved has apologized.
"But you've got a lot of crybabies that are going to latch on to this to the bitter end, but they're not going to say anything when a hockey game has fights every night. Young sport, old sport – people are making a much bigger deal than this. It's hype; it's all hype."
Gracie said Shields could have handled the post-fight incursion by dissing Miller, the star of MTV's reality show, "Bully Beatdown."
"'Who are you again? I just beat Dan Henderson. Your fight wasn't even telecast,'" Gracie said. "That would have been the professional way to handle that, not pushing the guy, not throwing punches when he came flying back at my guys. It wasn't the smart way to handle it. It was the emotional way to handle it."
On Sunday, Gracie apologized to Jeffrey Mullen, the director of the Tennessee Athletic Commission, as well as Strikeforce officials. He said no immediate sanctions have been placed on his fighters.
Today, Mullen told MMAjunkie.com that an investigation has been opened into the April 17 melee.
UFC president Dana White today blasted Showtime, Strikeforce's broadcast partner, for their handling of the matter. He said he spoke to Nate Diaz, though he did not disclose the nature of the conversation, and said the UFC has no plans to discipline the fighter.
Gracie hopes the incident's fallout will steer the sport in a more positive direction.
"Let the dust settle a little bit," he said. "This stuff happens. Let's grow from it and not do it again."
