Miller brings MMA to MTV
By Dave Meltzer, Yahoo! Sports
Mar 20, 7:33 pm EDT
“Bully Beatdown,” debuting this Sunday on MTV, is the newest Mark Burnett (“Survivor,” “The Apprentice,” “The Contender”) reality show and combines mixed martial arts, a whacky host and a simple concept. People who are being picked on write letters to Jason “Mayhem” Miller, show host and MMA star, who meets the victims, hears their stories, then confronts the perpetrators, offering them a proposition: They can make some money fighting someone who can dish it out, or they can back down on national television.
If they accept, the bully gets into the ring with one of Miller’s friends and/or training partners, an MMA fighter who is roughly the same size as the bully. Miller sits with the victim, and they watch as the bully is put in the position as the victim.
“I’m the superhero who confronts the bullies,” said Miller. “I offer $10,000 to the bully to fight an MMA fighter of his weight.”
But it’s not MMA fighting.
The fights consist of two three-minute rounds. The first round is submission grappling. The bully starts with $5,000 and for every time he taps during the three minutes, $1,000 goes to the victim.
The second round is kickboxing. The bully is allowed to wear headgear, and the two fight with heavily padded gloves. This is a $5,000, winner-take-all round. If the bully can survive without being put down for the 10 count, he gets the money. If he’s knocked out, the victim gets the money. The end of the show is a resolution as, in theory, the bully learns a lesson when the shoe is on the other foot.
The show airs at 9:30 p.m. ET on Sundays, and eight episodes already are in the can. Miller, who said he thinks there are moments on the show that will become water-cooler talk on Mondays, noted they are still looking for new stories for future episodes. Anyone who feels they’ve been victimized can contact him at bullycasting@yahoo.com.
According to Miller, the show – filmed mostly in California and Utah in February – features some good beatdowns.
“The shows will be great television, but it won’t be winning any Emmys,” he said joking.
“A bully does lose some teeth in one of the episodes. This is 100 percent real. A lot of people who heard about this think it’s fake, but it’s legit.”
Miller said there are bullies who take beatings, and there are bullies who survive the beatings and collect the money.
Miller got the call to host the show when producers, looking for an MMA fighter, saw his YouTube videos called “The Mayhem Show.”
Among the fighters who face bullies are Australian middleweight Tony Bonello (16-1-1), who formerly fought for Elite XC; lightweight Conor Heun (8-2), a veteran of the old International Fight League and Elite XC; Jake Shields (22-4-1), who held the Elite XC welterweight title and is one of the top fighters in the world in his weight class; and heavyweight Michael Westbrook (1-1), a Brazilian Jiu Jitsu practitioner better known as an NFL star, a wide receiver who was the fourth pick in the 1995 NFL draft and played seven seasons with the Washington Redskins and Cincinnati Bengals.
Miller (21-6), 28, doesn’t fight on the series. Best known in Hawaii during the heyday of the old SuperBrawl/Icon Sports promotion from 2003-06, he’s gearing up for his next match, on April 18 in Honolulu, against Island favorite Kala Kolohe Hose in the debut show of the Kingdom promotion.
It’s somewhat of a revival of Icon Sports, since T. Jay Thompson is heading the group, but the Icon Sports promotion was purchased by Pro Elite, and that organization no longer operates. Miller lived in Honolulu during that period and regularly headlined shows at the Neal Blaisdell Center Arena. On Sept. 2, 2006, he beat Robbie Lawler to win the Icon Sports middleweight title, but he lost it on Dec. 1, 2006, to Frank Trigg.
Known for outlandish ring entrances and claiming a fan base that he calls the “Mayhem Monkeys,” Miller claims his martial arts discipline as professional wrestling (an idea taken from Josh Barnett). His style is more fitting for Japan, where he’s scheduled to return this summer with the Dream promotion.
Once while in Hawaii, he participated in a freak show match. He bulked up to 200 pounds and faced 6-7, 350-pound football player and pro wrestler named Stefan Gamlin, who was nearly twice his size, but had only limited fighting experience. It was pushed as a battle of fighting skill vs. size, and Miller submitted Gamlin in just 46 seconds. Perhaps his most famous match was four years ago, when he went the distance in losing at UFC 52 to Georges St. Pierre, in his only bout with the promotion.
Last year Miller fought in the Dream promotion, in their middleweight Grand Prix, where he lost via decision in the semifinals to submission master Ronaldo “Jacare” Souza.
“I love Japan,” he said. “When you go there, they treat you like a king. You get treated like a legitimate athlete and like a legitimate star. I love America but I have to find the right place for me here. I can only do this for so long, and you have to go with best offer.”
Miller thrives on the entertainment aspect, coming to the ring and dancing like a monkey.
He noted that in Japan, the fights themselves are part of a larger show, designed to entertain you from start to finish, whereas in the U.S., it is just about two people getting into the ring or cage and fighting.
“They don’t up the entertainment here because they don’t have to.”
