Maggie Hendricks attended the workout and documented some vintage "Mayhem-isms":
Jason "Mayhem" Miller was enjoying every second of the media attention. While wearing a chinchilla coat, he spoke with Cagewriter."I'm feeling AWESOME, backslash, dotcom, I'm about to kick some ass," Miller said.
...And to the rumors that Shields will take over Miller's hosting duties on MTV's "Bully Beatdown"? "I think he's just insecure about this fight, so he's trying to get in my head. Guess what?!? I'm the one who plays the mind games. Not him. And I'm totally not worried about a guy who can't string together a sentence taking over my job on 'Bully Beatdown.' Mario Lopez? OK, maybe I'll be a little nervous. But Jake Shields? Not so much." Miller and Strikeforce light heavyweight Muhammed "King Mo" Lawal put on a pro wrestling exhibition during the workout.
Mayhem is filling the vacuum left by the ever-stoic Fedor Emelianenko who kept the antics to an absolute minimum. While Jake Shields is the favorite due to his considerable advantages as a wrestler and jiu jitsu practitioner, Miller has a size advantage as a natural middleweight and should have the edge on the feet.
Shields is a top notch fighter, but Miller is the far more charismatic performer. I'm curious to see if he can pull out a win here if he'll emerge as a breakout star.
Mayhem is definitely a colorful character and Bully Beatdown has been a successful show but his schtick has always struck me as a tad forced. Does he really have what it takes to capture the attention of a mainstream audience on network TV? The demographics of the Mayhem Monkeys -- Miller's legions of online followers -- presumably trend younger and more bi-coastal than the CBS audience. The ratings from EliteXC's successful shows seemed to indicate that MMA on CBS draws an older and more Southern and Midwestern audience than UFC on Spike TV.
Gina Carano and Kimbo Slice have been the sole MMA fighters to breakout and become stars after having fought on CBS in Primetime.
The best candidates on this Saturday's card appear to be Fedor Emelianenko and Mayhem Miller. They're taking utterly opposite approaches, it'll be interesting to see if either manages to grab the imagination of the American mass audience.