Penick's Take
PENICK: Strikeforce: Nashville on CBS perhaps the worst night in Strikeforce's history
Apr 18, 2010 - 12:47:59 PM PENICK: Strikeforce: Nashville on CBS perhaps the worst night in Strikeforce's history

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By: Jamie Penick, MMATorch Editor-in-Chief

Last night's Strikeforce event on CBS was a disaster for the organization. There's just no other way to spin it. All three Title fights went to a decision, the event went 45 minutes over the allotted time on CBS, their new star acquisition was defeated by a smaller fighter likely on his way out of the organization and the fight ending brawl was the sort of embarrassing event that sets them and the sport back.

The Title fights were not good last night. They just weren't. There was some great technical wrestling being done by Shields in the main event, but the fights were painfully boring in spots and just uneventful at best, leading to a lot of viewers likely changing the channel before the event finished.

The Light Heavyweight Title fight exposed Gegard Mousasi, and "King Mo" didn't come out looking great even in victory. Mousasi had no takedown defense at all. None. It was a hole in his game that hadn't been exploited before, but it's such a large hole that it knocks him out of being considered a top ten light heavyweight. A gassed Lawal ground out a decision by constantly being able to take Gegard down, but he wasn't able to inflict any damage or pass Mousasi's guard effectively, and even though he won it wasn't a very impressive performance from either.

The timing issues that they've had in previous events were prevalent last night as well, with the first hour consisting of that fight and commercials. Then, the Gilbert Melendez vs. Shinya Aoki fight ended up being another disappointing bout that turned a lot of people off. Melendez was impressive, but it was a tentative and not very exciting performance even in victory. Aoki was exposed against a much better wrestler and a much better striker, and his standing in the lightweight division has to be in question.

Then, after the first two fights took nearly the entire two hour time slot along with commercials, they still showed highlights from the Miller-Stout bout on the prelims and then went to the main event.

Dan Henderson was supposed to win this fight. He left the UFC and signed a big money deal with Strikeforce to be one of the faces of the promotion after all of the exposure he'd received in the UFC. Jake Shields is a natural welterweight who wasn't supposed to have much of a chance in the fight. And in addition to that, Shields was going to be a free agent once this fight was done.

Shields shocked everyone after surviving a brutal right hand from Henderson in the first round, and he dominated the rest of the fight in what started as a fascinating display, only to turn into another less than exciting finish in the final rounds.

Now, Strikeforce has Henderson under contract for a large chunk of change for his remaining fights, and Strikeforce has to try to sell him against whatever middleweights or light heavyweights that they can find, and the only footage they own on him is of Shields mounted on him for half of this fight.

But that wasn't even the worst part of the night for Strikeforce. After going over their allotted timeslot on CBS, once again to the ire of CBS affiliates around the country, a full scale riot broke out in the cage.

Somehow Jason "Mayhem" Miller was allowed to walk into the cage, and he stuck his head in between Gus Johnson and Jake Shields and asked where his rematch was. That caused Shields and the entire Cesar Gracie camp in his corner to attack Miller, and though Shields was pulled back, Nick Diaz, Gilbert Melendez and more of their crew proceeded to put a beating on Miller in front of the crowd and to the national audience watching on CBS.

First off, why in the hell are so many people in the cage at the end of these events as it is? It's been pointed out already today, but the end of their events look like the end of every "Rocky" movie, with far too many people in the cage before the decision was even announced.

The blame for the riot itself lays on the Cesar Gracie camp, but Strikeforce cannot and will not be absolved of their portion. Miller should not have been allowed in the cage. Period. He's not anywhere close to next in line for Shields after getting handily beaten by decision when they fought in November, and had no business being involved in that moment after Shields' biggest career win.

All of this went almost the worst possible way for Strikeforce last night. With ratings sure to be low after a terribly paced and not very exciting first hour and no Fedor on this card, along with going over the time allotted a second time and a ridiculously unprofessional and detrimental show ending brawl, Strikeforce is almost assuredly done on CBS. I can't imagine the network putting any more backing to Strikeforce after that.

It was simply the worst way for this event to unfold for Strikeforce, and now they're left with a Light Heavyweight Champion that didn't look great, a Lightweight Champion without any major challenges in the organization, a Middleweight Champion that may be leaving and now likely no more network television in their future.

In what was supposed to be their biggest event and the biggest MMA card they've put together, it ended up being perhaps the worst night in the organization's history.