Over the past few days fans have been trying to find out exactly what happened backstage at UFC 146 that lead to Jason ‘Mayhem’ Miller getting fired from the promotion, and whether he will now stick to his word and retire from the sport.
Well, yesterday we got some answers as a very low sounding ‘Mayhem’ broke his silence on ‘The MMA Hour’ show with Ariel Helwani.
‘Mayhem’ On Retirement:
“I said I would, so I am. I’m done for right now,” though he did also leave the door open for a return in the future, adding, “‘I’m retired until I need money.”
On the Backstage Incident At UFC 146:
“It was my [walkout] mask. Burt [Watson – UFC backstage co-ordinator] suddenly started yelling about my mask. I had a gas mask for the troops underneath my paper bag, and Burt started telling me right as I’m walking out for the fight. I’m trying to get focused instead of arguing about a paper bag. Maybe it was my fault for, I don’t know, I thought we had an understanding once I start walking out to the cage that now I’m working, but obviously we’re not on a playing field of mutual respect.
On A Rumored Knee Injury Prior To The Fight:
“Yeah, you know what – Since I’m done fighting anyway I’ll just bust out all the excuses. Yeah, yeah, sure, but I mean, who cares though?”
On His Relationship With Dana White:
“Sometimes you rub people the wrong way. When you’re in charge of a multinational corporation and you kind of don’t like someone, it’s pretty easy to just swat me.”
“I always tried to have a sit-down with him or just get a chance to…but it wasn’t happening, and I can understand why.”
On What He Plans To Do Next:
“I feel like life is unlocked to a whole new set of adventures.”
“Don’t worry it’ll all be on film. You know what, I plan on having a meltdown all video-taped. It’ll be fun, it’ll be awesome.”
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You only need to listen to a couple of minutes of the video of this interview below to realize that ‘Mayhem’ is in a bad place right now.
Take some of his comments about having a “meltdown” with a pinch of salt though. While he hasn’t exactly come out and said so my hunch (and it is purely a hunch) is that he’s planning to do a series of ‘extreme sports’ like bunjee-jumping and skydiving and have it filmed, perhaps for a TV show.
Also, I’m not convinced we’re hearing the full story of what happened backstage at UFC 146.
“Trust me if I told u what he did backstage u wouldn’t like him anymore,” Dana White told a fan on Twitter about the backstage incident.
The UFC president has however also essentially confirmed that Miller was destined to be fired from the promotion anyway after two sub-par performances in a row since moving over from Strikeforce.
Watch ‘Mayhem’s’ full interview below courtesy of MMAFighting.
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