MMA/Boxing Documentaries

[Egg Shen]

Vice have stuck up the first episode of Dark Side of the Cage on youtube... get some Mayhem Miller down you.

 

[jimufctna24]

Thanks for sharing Ebb. 

There were a few slight issues with the timeline in that episode. The narration makes out that Mayhem went from villain to hero in Hawaii before his UFC fight with GSP. However, a quick look at Mayhem's MMA record reveals that the majority of his MMA fights in Hawaii occurred after the GSP bout. Also, Mayhem's infamous bout with Egan Inoue, which the documentary covers and where Mayhem supposedly became despised by the Hawaii crowd, took place little over a year before Mayhem's bout with GSP. After the Inoue bout, Mayhem only fought in Hawaii once more before the GSP bout. Did he really go from hated to beloved in Hawaii in the space of one fight? 

There are a few other errors too. The episode also described GSP as being the man when Mayhem fought him in April of 2005. In truth, GSP was seemingly still quite green going into that bout. In his previous UFC bout in October of 2004, a very young GSP had given Matt Hughes all he could handle, but had then made a error which led to him losing via armbar. This error was a clear result of inexperience, and was acknowledged as such at the time by many. GSP was all wrong for Hughes, and once GSP logged enough experience, that became very evident in their following two meetings which GSP won easily. Also, I question how much the Nashville brawl in 2010, which Mayhem instigated, really contributed to Strikeforce's cancellation from CBS. I have little doubt the incident upset CBS executives, but I can imagine the poor ratings that show drew, which had nothing to do with Mayhem rather poor matchmaking by Coker/Chou, was at least partially responsible for the cancellation. Yet the poor ratings were not mentioned. 

All in all, the episode is still a really good watch. I never really watched Bully Beatdown and was actually quite oblivious to its popularity. However, I remember well the GSP vs Mayhem bout (the first fight Bravo showed as part of their deal to show UFC events on 18 hour delay) Mayhem fighting Shields in Strikeforce and almost winning via submission, the Nashville brawl the following year, and the incident on Helwani's show which prompted GAD's "proper bloke" comment we had a laugh about on this forum. It was also nice that the episode had a somewhat happy ending. 

 

Edited September 3 by jimufctna24

[jimufctna24]

I watched the Affliction episode of Dark Side of the Cage last night. 

It was a decent watch. I was unaware (or had perhaps forgotten) about Tom Atencio essentially acting as a front-man for Todd Beard, so all that was new information. The rest of the documentary was old news, but a welcome trip down memory lane. 

A rumour on Twitter has it that Team Fedor wanted Lashley to step in and replace Barnett on their Trilogy card, whereas Affliction wanted Belfort to replace Barnett instead. Ultimately the card was cancelled and the promotion folded, so neither proposed fight occurred. However, it's interesting to consider why Team Fedor (which is now believed to be Fedor and a band of yes-men) pushed for Fedor to fight Lashley and not Belfort. 

Did Fedor not trust his chin by mid-2009? Belfort had fast hands and power. Did Fedor think he could deal with Lashley's wrestling? I can't recall how good Lashley was at MMA to be honest, but freestyle wrestlers had traditionally given Fedor more issues than strikers, clinch wrestlers, and submission artists.