Mayhem Miller re-signs w/ UFC

[MoFo]

On Friday, Jason "Mayhem" Miller (24-7 MMA, 0-1 UFC) announced he was returning to the Ultimate Fighting Championship.

On Saturday, UFC brass announced he's already lined up to fight.

UFC officials today announced Miller will meet wrestling standout Aaron Simpson (8-2 MMA, 4-2 UFC) at July's "UFC 132: Cruz vs. Faber II" event.

Miller's return comes six years after a lone appearance at welterweight in which he was dominated by Georges St-Pierre. "Mayhem" now returns to the UFC as a thoroughly experienced middleweight. Miller is 12-3 with one no contest since his ill-fated trip to the octagon and lost a unanimous decision to Jake Shields for the vacant Strikeforce middleweight belt in November 2009.

Outside of the cage, Miller has kept busy as the host of MTV's popular reality show "Bully Beatdown," which completed its third season this past December. It's unknown whether a fourth season is in the works.

Meanwhile, Simpson returns to action after a recent one-sided beatdown of Mario Miranda at UFC Fight Night 24. The victory snapped a two-fight losing streak for Simpson, who had dropped back-to-back outings against Mark Munoz and Chris Leben. Prior to the skid, Simpson had notched seven-straight wins to open his career, including three octagon victories and one win under the WEC banner.


Notable for being the first Strikeforce guy to switch following the buyout.

The trash talk opportunities w/ him & Sonnen/Bisping etc should be good though.

[Next Big Thing]

This is what makes the Strikeforce/ UFC as separate brand idea a joke. Coker never had a chance of signing the guy who happens to have a high profile reality show on MTV. Dana wanted him and Dana got him.

[Jura]

Well Jason had recent problems in SF so if I was him I'd probably go to UFC too plus his contract was expiring.

[Kris P Lettus]

He is just ducking Diaz..

:shifty:

[Impact!]

I guess that means no more of his awesome walk ins with the japanese school girls :(

[Jura]

Maybe he can get some Japanese girls that can double as his corner (wo)men.

[Innovator]

I am so happy about this

[Jura]

Jason “Mayhem” Miller Banished from Showtime and CBS, Led to UFC Signing (http://sports.yahoo.com/mma/news;_ylt=AkouC6GfOR1251Kms1ltFH49Eo14?slug=mmaweekly-09f206a19ea4782c8dfd5e55c3850d6c)

[Kris P Lettus]

Diaz was still able to fight on Showtime.. Funny how alot of you guys were saying Mayhem was a victim, yet the officials saw it differently..

[IC Champion]

Just going to be the start of a trend to come. Anyone who thinks Strikeforce will be around after it's contract with Showtime is up should stop smoking crack. The UFC is poaching a fighter in Strikeforces weakest division, who wasn't even a contender in that division. Yeah, this is definetly not good for the sport.

[IC Champion]

But then again there are retarded fans who only care about seeing Cain vs Overeem and such.

[Next Big Thing]

I don't see how this is necessarily bad for the sport from a fan perspective. Strikeforce had a guy with a hit reality show on MTV and they couldn't get him a fight. It took them a year to get their 155 pound champ another fight and they seem to let fighters tell them to fuck off while they go off and do other things (Cung Le, Carano, Werdum, Alistair, the back and forth bullshit with Fedor)...

The UFC is in the best position to give the fans the matches they want with quality promotion and production. Can you imagine where the sport would be if Coker was responsible for trying to open new markets and convince legislators to change their stance on MMA. There would be no sport.

My only problem is the fighters have lost a lot of bargaining power. That's why they should consider unionizing ASAP. I also don't like the fact that Dana's petty grudges could certain fighters out. But that's the trade off... inept Scott Coker fucking up for everyone or Dana White's petty grudges against a few fighters.

At least Dana's shown he can let go (Tito, Couture and now Hendo apparently), Coker's still a fat fuck up.

[IC Champion]

Monopolys are never good, from anyone's perspective. Jesus fucking christ, there are more than enough fights to be had now in the UFC, if you can't see how it's bad for the sport, you never will.

[IC Champion]

I don't see how Coker was all that inept, he put together the HW tourny, he made SF viable, and an atlernative. It's ratings have been steadily improving, and have been making new stars, how much did you want them to do realistically as a large regional promotion competing with a super power in the UFC? I think Coker was doign rather well, considering.

[Next Big Thing]

Every major professional sports league in North America has a monopoly on their respective sports and those guys make a hell of a lot more money than UFC fighters. Why? Because the leagues provide a centralized place for fans to watch. The leagues negotiate lucrative television deals that the athletes get a share of. Strong unions protect them.

If a monopoly works for the NBA, NFL, MLB, Nascar and PGA tour, why is it so bad for the sport of MMA from a fan perspective and in terms of expansion of the sport?

In boxing's heyday, Don King monopolized the position of promoter by having it put in contracts that if his champion lost he would get to promote "x" number of fights for the guy who knocked him off and boxing has waned in popularity and prominence since he left.

There is no one for a Melendez to fight at 155 and no one for Diaz to fight at 170. How is it good for the sport for Diaz to headline a fight against Tyron Woodley when he could be fighting the likes of Koscheck, Fitch, Condit, Diego Sanchez, BJ Penn... What match ups are going to draw the most fan interest and thus help the sport grow in popularity?

How is it good for the sport when a guy like Bret Rogers gets KOd by Fedor (someone he never should be in the same locker room with let alone the same Octagon) and then turns around and fights for the heavyweight championship his next fight?

Is it good for the sport when a company's heavyweight champion doesn't fight for the promotion again for another three years after winning it?

[IC Champion]

Is it good for the sport when it's run and conrolled by a dictator? A guy who is so petty and childish, he'll cut an entire trainging camp because they wont sign there likeness away for life, for next to nothing? You're forgetting that those other leagues have unions, and before the unions the players got raped, much like fighters are today. When Frankie Edgar is your LW champion, and he only made 50 K to show. I know he isn't a huge draw, but he's a fucking champion and I think he should earn more than 50k to show for a fight. Or how about when Shane Carwin fighting in what was up until that point arguably the company biggest fight, he makes a measly 44K to show. And that was during a time when there was competetion.

[IC Champion]

"I want to see Diaz fight real fighters" Well guess what, he could have, but he signed with SF, that's if Dana was even interested. UFC has a massive roster, why not send some guys to SF?

[MoFo]

Plus the promotion to the Shields/Hendo fight was terrible. They were acting like it was a foregone conclusion that Hendo was going to steamroll him, completely ignoring Shields from the build up.

Of course they paid for that in the end and were left red faced when he left but yeah. Strikeforce needed someone with a backbone to run their ship, looks like they got that now.

[Next Big Thing]

I don't see how Coker was all that inept, he put together the HW tourny, he made SF viable, and an atlernative. It's ratings have been steadily improving, and have been making new stars, how much did you want them to do realistically as a large regional promotion competing with a super power in the UFC? I think Coker was doign rather well, considering.

The SF tournament was something he threw together three months ago. By the time that tournament started, he didn't even have a date or venue for the second set of first round fights and there's no way having the first round matches four months apart was something he actually planned. Also, he included a guy who at the time wasn't even cleared to fight in the states. That's not exactly capable.

Instead of capitalizing off the fact that Werdum beat one of the greatest heavyweights of all time by having him fight Overeem (who was down for the fight), he let him take a year off. That's not capable.

By the way, he let M-1 re-negotiate for the third time after Fedor lost and agreed to co-promote. What kind of businessman does that?

Bjorn Rebney exposed him for lying about the potential Eddie Alvarez v. Gilbert Melendez fight.

And as far as creating new stars, Overeem's fought once in three years for SF so I wouldn't give him credit for Overeem's status.

Diaz started building his fan base from his ultimate fighter days and it's not like Strikeforce's marketing team really did much to escalate it. More than anything it's the way he fights and the outlandish shit he says in interviews.

Hendo was a star long before Coker.

No one could pick Jacare out of a police line up.

[Next Big Thing]

Is it good for the sport when it's run and conrolled by a dictator? A guy who is so petty and childish, he'll cut an entire trainging camp because they wont sign there likeness away for life, for next to nothing? You're forgetting that those other leagues have unions, and before the unions the players got raped, much like fighters are today. When Frankie Edgar is your LW champion, and he only made 50 K to show. I know he isn't a huge draw, but he's a fucking champion and I think he should earn more than 50k to show for a fight. Or how about when Shane Carwin fighting in what was up until that point arguably the company biggest fight, he makes a measly 44K to show. And that was during a time when there was competetion.

That argument doesn't necessarily work because Strikeforce wasn't paying their fighters much better.

Carano vs. Cyborg Santos was the biggest show in that company's history (hell it's one of the highest rated fight cards in MMA history period) and sold more tickets than Silva v. Sonnen in that same building. Santos made $25,000 for that. On that same card (a card that also sold more tickets than Edgar/Maynard) Gilbert Melendez only made $50,000 as their lightweight champion.

In the big Feijao/ Hendo fight they paid their reigning champion $28,000 going in.

It's PRIZE fighting. Being a draw is the biggest factor in determining someone's pay. Edgar v. Maynard only sold 7,000 tickets. 40% of the people there got in free. And Frankie made $170,000 at the end of the night anyways due to his win bonus and fight of the night bonus.

[Next Big Thing]

"I want to see Diaz fight real fighters" Well guess what, he could have, but he signed with SF, that's if Dana was even interested. UFC has a massive roster, why not send some guys to SF?

It's all owned by Zuffa anyways. So if you're angry that the UFC is poaching fighters from weaker Strikeforce divisions and would rather the UFC send some guys to SF then it's more about you're preference for Strikeforce over the UFC/Dana White than it is about the actual monopoly aspect of it.

[IC Champion]

The argument works both ways, I never said Strikeforce was any better in that area. It's a problem for the sport. Even so, Strikeforce is a regional promotion on cable tv, whereas UFC is an international organization, that is broadcast on PPV.

And while it may have only drew 7000 paying at the gate the PPV still sold close to 300,000, which while low for the UFC, is still a good number regardless.

[IC Champion]

It's all owned by Zuffa anyways. So if you're angry that the UFC is poaching fighters from weaker Strikeforce divisions and would rather the UFC send some guys to SF then it's more about you're preference for Strikeforce over the UFC/Dana White than it is about the actual monopoly aspect of it.

I'm not angry about the UFC poaching fighters, it's all about the monopoly aspect. I don't actually prefer that UFC send guys to Strikeforce, it's just with the much larger roster, why would you sign talent from an already depleted division, unless you're planning to sign other talent once there conracts expire.

I don't prefer Strikeforce to UFC, it's the contrary I much prefer UFC. But I have much less faith in Dana white than the average MMA fan. If salarys and pay haven't changed much even post boom, when there was competetion, what makes you, or anyone beleive it will? I guess we won't know if the UFC being the only show in town is a good thing until someone attempts to form a union, and we get Mr White's/UFC reaction.

[Next Big Thing]

The argument works both ways, I never said Strikeforce was any better in that area. It's a problem for the sport. Even so, Strikeforce is a regional promotion on cable tv, whereas UFC is an international organization, that is broadcast on PPV.

And while it may have only drew 7000 paying at the gate the PPV still sold close to 300,000, which while low for the UFC, is still a good number regardless.

That's my point, even with competition some fighters were still getting fucked so it's not fair to paint the UFC as the bad guys when Strikeforce was just as guilty.

Making SF seem like a regional promotion isn't really a fair depiction either. Bellator is a regional promotion. Strikeforce has a deal with Showtime which seems to get pretty damn good ratings for it's t.v. shows and was featured on CBS and probably would still be if the brawl didn't happen. Plus, the past two years SF has been able to pay it's top guys figures that match the UFC. They're beyond regional.

As far as PPV goes, I think it's another example of Coker's ineptitude that they haven't done at least one yet with some of talent and match ups they've had going in.

[Next Big Thing]

I'm not angry about the UFC poaching fighters, it's all about the monopoly aspect. I don't actually prefer that UFC send guys to Strikeforce, it's just with the much larger roster, why would you sign talent from an already depleted division, unless you're planning to sign other talent once there conracts expire.

I don't prefer Strikeforce to UFC, it's the contrary I much prefer UFC. But I have much less faith in Dana white than the average MMA fan. If salarys and pay haven't changed much even post boom, when there was competetion, what makes you, or anyone beleive it will? I guess we won't know if the UFC being the only show in town is a good thing until someone attempts to form a union, and we get Mr White's/UFC reaction.

I do agree with you about the union thing, but let's not forget how relatively new MMA still is. Plus, most fighters still have rinky dink managers. Very few of the major sports agents have entered yet. Once that happens, I think we'll see a shift.

As ironic as it may seem, the UFC being the only game in time actually bolsters the likelihood of unionization, especially if they go to court over it.

[IC Champion]

That's my point, even with competition some fighters were still getting fucked so it's not fair to paint the UFC as the bad guys when Strikeforce was just as guilty.

Making SF seem like a regional promotion isn't really a fair depiction either. Bellator is a regional promotion. Strikeforce has a deal with Showtime which seems to get pretty damn good ratings for it's t.v. shows and was featured on CBS and probably would still be if the brawl didn't happen. Plus, the past two years SF has been able to pay it's top guys figures that match the UFC. They're beyond regional.

As far as PPV goes, I think it's another example of Coker's ineptitude that they haven't done at least one yet with some of talent and match ups they've had going in.

Let's be realistic here, it wasn't until recently that Strikeforce had the talent and drawing power to entertain the idea of a succussful PPV.