In the immediate aftermath of the infamous Strikeforce: Nashville brawl I wrote an article expressing my desire for the Cesar Gracie camp to be charged with assault. After all, less disgusting offenses than a gang beating of an athlete have led to assault charges in other sports. If you'd told me that night that the camp members involved (especially the Diaz brothers) would suffer a throwaway suspension at the hands of the athletic commission while Jason Miller would be effectively suspended without pay for the rest of his Strikeforce career, I'd have called you an idiot.
But that is exactly what happened. Now signed by the UFC, "Mayhem" talked to MMA Fighting about his wasted year:
"Up until the last minute - up until it was apparent that they had no intention of fulfilling the contract - I was like, hey, I'm ready to fight. Let's fight," Miller said. "At the last moment, it looks as if, okay, they can't fulfill the contract. Now I fight in the UFC. ...I have no ill will towards anyone. If that's how they saw it, then that's how they saw it. If that's the case that I was really banned [from Showtime], then hey, it's not the first place I've been 86'd from."
...
"Here I've been sitting on the bench. I've been training. I've been working hard and improving, but do you guys think I get some sort of severance package? Do you think I have Bully Beatdown billions? I don't, trust me. I sat around and wasted a good chunk of my career that I could have been making income and capitalizing on the fact that my body is great and I know how to fight."
...
"Maybe it was because I was the only guy who apologized and accepted the blame," he said. "I was the only guy who really apologized for it, and not this half-hearted thing where my manager's making me say I'm sorry. I was truly apologetic. That whole incident, I never expected anything like that to happen."
Strikeforce or Showtime, however, very clearly shoulder responsibility in managing the operations of who does or does not enter the cage. To be upset with Miller would be understandable. To ban him from appearing on Showtime or CBS would be placing an unfair share of the blame on his shoulders, a dubious and overly punitive decision at best. To do so without informing him is the absolute height of irresponsibility.
Showtime or Strikeforce is as culpable for the act that damaged their brand as Miller. To leave a fighter in stasis without him being able to make informed decisions about his needs is plainly cruel. Miller spent the last year trying to fight Nick Diaz and not understanding why the fight wasn't made. Now he knows, although he squandered a year of his professional prime as a consequence.
Even if Strikeforce withheld the information as a leveraging tool for future contract negotiations, that absolves them of nothing. In fact, that would be downright duplicitous. It's hard to envision a circumstance where Strikeforce or Showtime would be exonerated for not informing a fighter of his marginalized standing within the company.
The truth is, Miller held some responsibility in the brawl. He entered the cage, but that's always been "standard practice" in many MMA promotions (the difference being that the promotion is usually "in the know"). Strikeforce and Showtime failed to control the environment and an attempt by Miller to build momentum for a rematch with Jake Shields turned into a wild brawl where a team of fighters attacked him throwing punches and head stomps.
There's plenty of blame to go around, but the punishment far surpassed the crime in this case.