James Brydon

Follow fight-by-fight results for MMA events with Twitter. James will do live updates during all UFC events as well as many other promotions, including Canadian ones.

What took place Saturday night in the "hexagon" in Nashville wasn't good.

It was very bad, actually. (It was surreal -- watching post-fight melee inside the cage, I thought I had accidentally changed the channel and was watching an episode of WWE Raw.)

But are people blowing it out of proportion? The mix of reactions since the incident has been interesting.

Dana White's first tweet, minutes after it happened: ":)"

Now, whether that smiley face emoticon was directed at the post-fight shenanigans or the fact that the UFC may have let Dan Henderson walk at just the perfect time is unclear. (It could easily be both.)

The dumbest comment was from Gus Johnson, who was conducting the interview with Jake Shields when it was interrupted by Jason (Mayhem) Miller. As officials moved in to break up the scrum that started after Shields shoved an apparently trash-talking Miller, Johnson said, "Sometimes these things happen in MMA. A lot of testosterone in the cage."

Uh, no. These things DON'T happen "sometimes." And promoting that idea will only perpetuate bad stereotypes. You'd think a veteran sports announcer, who has called many a football game, like Johnson would know better. (You don't think there's testosterone on the gridiron? But he would never say that there. Come to think of it, his play-by-play announcing is often "testosterone-filled." But I digress.)

Johnson then he followed that with "Gentleman, we're on national television." Like the fighters and cornermen would all in unison suddenly stop, and say, "Oh yeah, I forgot."

Some suggested the confrontation was staged. I doubt Strikeforce CEO Scott Coker is that careless.

Might Miller have been "encouraged" to go in there and "challenge" Shields, not at all envisioning what ensued? If so, Vince McMahon's got nothing on Coker.

The question is, does this reflect badly on the individual fighters, the whole Strikeforce organization, CBS for getting in bed with them, or MMA as a whole?

Might I suggest: None of the above. At least not significantly.

It was a poor show of sportsmanship, to be sure. But I stop short of calling it controversial. I reserve that for situations where someone makes a calculated decision to behave in a certain way that incites debate. (Like, for example, when a fighter decides to refuse to engage an opponent and instead mock him.)

No, this was a momentary error in judgment, fueled by emotion. And to the credit of all involved, apologies were fairly quick to come.

The Athletic Commission will look into it. Hopefully any reprimands will be minor -- I'm not saying they shouldn't face some sanctions, but I think those involved have already learned their lesson. At least I hope so.

And hopefully Strikeforce officials also learned something. They'll certainly be more careful about how they handle post-fight situations.

MFC president Mark Pavelich was quick to release a statement about mistakes they made that wouldn't be made in his organization. He makes good points. (Though I would hope if your kid is old enough to be watching fighting late on a Saturday night, he's old enough not to need an explanation about the riot.)

Should anyone outside of the fighter's cornermen be allowed in the cage? Probably not, but it's not uncommon for a winning champion's next potential opponent to come in for dramatic purposes. Anyone remember the Rampage-Evans staredown?

Also, pushing and shoving is not uncommon at weigh-ins. Is it that surprising that it would happen in the cage if a fighter is not checked at the door?

And was the incident worse than Brock Lesnar's anti-establishment rant at UFC 100? What about Tito Ortiz yelling out trash outside the cage following Mark Coleman's last fight? I would say this is worse, but clearly it wasn't the first time someone acted immaturely in the post-fight moments inside the cage.

Cesar Gracie came to the defence of his fighters, Jake Shields and Gilbert Melendez, saying it was wrong what they did but the reaction has been overblown and hypocritical, considering fights break out in the NBA and NHL.

What Strikeforce should be worried about a lot more than this isolated brawl are the viewership numbers, which were nowhere near what the promotion was hoping for. That will be what determines whether CBS and Strikeforce will continue working together.

While more than twice as many people watched the live Strikeforce than the UFC 110 re-run on Spike TV (I should hope so), it was worse than any other previous event broadcast on CBS except for one. And despite three title fights, it was down 28 per cent from the previous such event in November, when Fedor Emelianenko headlined.

And while the performances by the three winners were stellar, the fights themselves did not have the excitement for which the organizers or viewers had hoped. And that doesn't bode well for getting fans in the future to tune in.

Let me be clear. I'm not at all defending what went on after the fights. But the bottom line is it isn't the only story to come out of the event. And I hope that in the long run the whole shoving incident will be forgotten.