A week after saying he was set to take on Jake Shields for the interim Strikeforce middleweight title, Jason "Mayhem" Miller said Tuesday that he's not sure if that fight will go on after all.Miller initially announced the fight on August 24 in a chat at MyFightTeam.com, but Miller told FanHouse on Tuesday that he has since been informed a fight with Shields might not be next for him.
"After I announced that, they told me that's not finalized," Miller said. "The fight business is very finicky. For some reason, my manager came back to me and said, 'They're not 100% sure.' I don't know. I would love to beat up Jake Shields."
Strikeforce has said it expects its next big fight card -- a co-promotion with M-1 Global featuring a main event of Fedor Emelianenko vs. Brett Rogers -- to take place in October or November on Showtime. No date or venue has been formally announced, and other than Emelianenko vs. Rogers, no other fights have been formally announced, either. But Miller said he'll be disappointed if he doesn't fight Shields on the card.
"Of course, I'll be bummed out," Miller said. "My whole life, for the last 12 years, I've been trying to figure out the best ways to beat somebody up. If I'm not allowed to do it for a while, I'll be pretty bummed."
Miller said he considers Shields a great opponent and a friend, and he added that he disagrees with those who think friends can't step into the cage against each other in MMA.
"It's the fight business, man," Miller said. "I have no problems fighting anyone, even my dad. I've done that a million times."
My full interview with Miller, in which he discusses his reality TV fame, his thoughts on UFC contracts and his feud with Ronaldo "Jacare" Souza, will run later this week at FanHouse .
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