2010 22 Apr

New Cage Potato Guy Eats It Over Strikeforce Brawl

In one of my recent posts on SBNation.com I discussed why I feel that there is equal blame to go around in the Cage Potato/Gus Johnson fiasco. Much of the blame should fall on Mike Russell of Cage Potato for his initial e-mail to Scott Coker regarding Johnson’s performance:

[Mike Russell's note to Scott Coker] is not a professionally worded e-mail that is looking for a legitimate response from a promotion head. This is a fan-ish attacking e-mail sent with the intention of shit stirring and nothing more.

I know no one of any reputation in the media who would expect to get an honest response to a question from a promotion’s CEO with phrasing like that which Russell used. Rather than e-mailing Coker and asking for a statement on concerns held by the MMA community and allowing the answer to come organically Mike changes the game by making it clear that the e-mails intention is to state that Johnson should be fired, not to open up a discussion on Coker’s feelings about the job Johnson does. The wording pre-establishes what Coker’s responses mean. If he defends Johnson, he is defending a guy who “badmouthed” him and if he expresses concern he has now sided with the idea that Gus must go.

Add to this whole situation the fact that Johnson is a CBS employee and CBS controls the broadcast, not Strikeforce, and it’s also set up to potentially put Coker at odds with the network.

It’s just unfortunate for Gus that he ended up reacting the way he did and actually rewarding unprofessional media behavior with a “woe is me” story for Russell to tell.