Ceasar Gracie weighs in

http://mmajunkie.com/news/18789/cesar-gracie-says-reaction-to-strikeforce-nashville-brawl-is-overblown-hypocritical.mma
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."

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."

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 wrote:

"'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."

100% agree. Miller made him look bad when really Jake could of made him look worse.

He seems to be intentionally ignoring the fact that 3 or 4 of his guys all jumped on one guy at the same time and threw kicks and punches while he being being held down on the ground. Cesar Gracie and his camp are losing more and more class each day.

LudoCain wrote:

He seems to be intentionally ignoring the fact that 3 or 4 of his guys all jumped on one guy at the same time and threw kicks and punches while he being being held down on the ground. Cesar Gracie and his camp are losing more and more class each day.

Are you mad that Gracie called a bunch of you guys "cry babies" ???

hey Cesar did the Sharks fight after the game

what a fucking retarded argument

No, Beast. I'm not mad at all, I just find myself losing more and more respect for that camp with each word Cesar spoke in a poor attempt at legitimizing a gang fight against one man. He totally ignored the fact that his students collectively jumped a guy for no other reason than he came into the octagon and pulled a dick move by trying to steal the spotlight on Shields' biggest career win.

If fighting wasn't supposed to happen in the NHL there would be suspensions involved when two guys do it.

LudoCain wrote:

No, Beast. I'm not mad at all, I just find myself losing more and more respect for that camp with each word Cesar spoke in a poor attempt at legitimizing a gang fight against one man. He totally ignored the fact that his students collectively jumped a guy for no other reason than he came into the octagon and pulled a dick move by trying to steal the spotlight on Shields' biggest career win.

If fighting wasn't supposed to happen in the NHL there would be suspensions involved when two guys do it.

Yeah besides MMA, fights are wanted in Hockey so that was stupid of him to say. He didn't say anything about the numbers of his guys on Miller. I was just messing with you anyways. You know me

Fights breakout more in Hockey than other sports. I am multitasking right now. No I am not spanking it either.

ya hockey fights ARE PART OF THE SPORT and happen DURING THE GAME

it would be like someone going, well theres alot of fighting in MMA

thats a refreshing point of view from cesar gracie. Fights happen all the time in other sports. I think it's good for sports. This is SF's fault for not having their shit together. That would have never happened in the UFC.

oggy420 wrote:

thats a refreshing point of view from cesar gracie. Fights happen all the time in other sports. I think it's good for sports. This is SF's fault for not having their shit together. That would have never happened in the UFC.

guess youve never heard of or seen

Tank Abbott vs Cabbage Corneiga

who woulda though Chuck Liddell and Oleg Taktarov would be stopping the brawl at UFC 45

LudoCain wrote:

He seems to be intentionally ignoring the fact that 3 or 4 of his guys all jumped on one guy at the same time and threw kicks and punches while he being being held down on the ground. Cesar Gracie and his camp are losing more and more class each day.

great post and gracie doesnt doing any favors relating a hockey brawl during the game to jumping a guy after an event.

oops sorry just read the thread after ludos post, seems most have brought up recants to gracies statement

I think Cesar made a good point he just gave a horrible example. He should have mentioned the NBA brawl were the players beat the shit out of fans.

MMAEYES wrote:

I think Cesar made a good point he just gave a horrible example. He should have mentioned the NBA brawl were the players beat the shit out of fans.

That is the worst thing ever to happen in sports. Artest is still playing.