Jason “Mayhem” Miller is the host of MTV’s Bully Beatdown, where he goads real-life bullies into accepting $10,000 prize fights against professional fighters. He has a recurring guest role most Mondays on The Jason Ellis Radio Show on Sirius XM Radio, he writes a popular monthly humour column for FIGHT! Magazine and has a large and growing fan club whose members call themselves Mayhem Monkeys.

He is also a BJJ and Muay Thai stylist with a professional MMA record of 22-6-0. He will be facing the 2004 and 2005 open weight BJJ world champion Ronaldo “Jacaré” de Souza for the middleweight title at DREAM 9.

Miller has already competed twice for DREAM, knocking out pro wrestling tough guy Katsuyori Shibata at DREAM 3 and losing an exciting match to “Jacare” by decision in the second round of the middleweight tournament at DREAM 4 in June 2008. His most recent fight was in Honolulu, at the debut event for Kingdom MMA, where he choked out local hero Kala “Kolohe” Hose in the first round.

FiveOuncesOfPain.com had the chance to catch up with Miller just before his big rematch with the submission wizard in Japan and he reassured us that this time around his gameplan would be “STRIKINGLY different”.

Gordi Whitelaw for FiveOuncesOfPain.com: What led you to compete in MMA?

Jason “Mayhem” Miller: An innate genetic desire to damage my fellow human beings, coupled with the realization that you can only do this if you join the Army or be a professional fighter.

FiveOuncesOfPain.com: Who are some of the people who’ve helped you along the way?

Jason “Mayhem” Miller: Rampage Jackson, Dan Henderson, Ryan Parsons. Jesus-not the one you are thinking, the guy who used to mow the lawn at my high school.

FiveOuncesOfPain.com: What are your greatest strengths as a fighter?

Jason “Mayhem” Miller: My unwillingness to quit and my psychotic inhuman rage.

FiveOuncesOfPain.com: What weaknesses, if any, do you perceive yourself as having in the ring?

Jason “Mayhem” Miller: My sensitivity to my opponents family.

FiveOuncesOfPain.com: How does your family feel about what you’ve chosen to do with your life?

Jason “Mayhem” Miller: They would beat your ass for asking that question.

FiveOuncesOfPain.com: In training, do you focus more energy on trying to fine tune the strong points of your game, or on trying to bring up whatever areas might need improving?

Jason “Mayhem” Miller: Improvement. Why would I beat a dead horse with something I already do well? It’s not 1992 and I’m not wearing a gi.

FiveOuncesOfPain.com: Do your training change as fight day approaches, how so, and how far out from a fight do these changes take effect?

Jason “Mayhem” Miller: A week out training is much lighter, gives the body time to recover and get strong for the fight.

FiveOuncesOfPain.com: What is your diet like? Do you use supplements?

Jason “Mayhem” Miller: During training camp a lot of vegetables, brown rice and lean protiens. I use whey protien, flax seeds, multivitamins, glucosamine and fiber.

FiveOuncesOfPain.com: What part(s) of your physical training regimen do you feel have the biggest impact on what happens in the ring?

Jason “Mayhem” Miller: I do different drills for different fights. This fight has been all about footwork and conditioning, the last fight was more about strength.

FiveOuncesOfPain.com: How will your strategy be different for the rematch? What did you learn in the first fight that might help you this time around?

Jason “Mayhem” Miller: I plan on making him fight to my strengths. Last time we fought on his terms and I didn’t win. This time will be STRIKINGLY different.

FiveOuncesOfPain.com: What changes have you made to your training in preparation for this fight?

Jason “Mayhem” Miller: More wrestling, more boxing, better ju jitsu. it’s not going down the same way this time.

Sengoku Eighth Battle looked, on paper, to be one of those cards that might fly under a lot of fans’ radar, but also like a card that had the potential to reward the viewers with interesting matches and great action. In execution, it started out very oddly but ended up more than living up to its potential. The tournament battles, in particular, were all exciting and well-fought. There were also almost as many leglocks and leglock attempts at this event as there used to be in a typical Pancrase show back in the early 1990s. All in all, it was easily one of the better Japanese MMA cards in recent memory.

Maximo Blanco vs. Akihiko Mori

In a bout that I don’t believe made air, Sengoku Training Player/Yoshida Dojo prodigy Shigeki Osawa took a decision win over Kota Ibishi, at least in part because Ibishi was given a yellow card for stalling. The rules played an even larger role in determining the victor in his training partner “MAXI” Blanco’s fight. Blanco used his tremendous power and aggression to take the fight to Mori, escaping an early armbar attempt and dealing out punishing strikes. A little past the four-minute mark, Blanco landed a right hook that dropped Mori, but foolishly followed up with a soccer kick to the Japanese fighter’s face that forced the referee to immediately disqualify the Venezuelan wrestler. Mori, laying unconscious on the canvas, was declared the victor.

Travis Wiuff vs. Stanislav Nedkov

The strangeness definitely continued through the first round of this fight, which saw the Bulgarian BJJ Black Belt Nedkov nail former YAMMA Pit Fighting champion with three separate knees straight to the groin in the early going. Understandably, this had the effect of slowing both the fight and the American powerhouse right down. In spite of clearly fighting much of the first two rounds in mortal agony, Wiuff was ahead on the judges cards going into the final frame. Nedkov, however, managed to knock Wiuff down with a hard right hand about half a minute into the third. After that, he pounced on the American and pounded him until the referee called a stop to the bout.

Makoto Takimoto vs. Michael Costa

Costa and his crew come out in “Jesus is my coach” T-shirts. Impressively, Costa seems to have taken the following advice from the Sermon on the Mount very much to heart: “You have heard that it was said, ‘An eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth.’ But I tell you, do not resist an evil person. If someone strikes you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also.” So, when Costa managed to escape Takimoto’s early arm-bar attempt, he very generously offered up his leg to the judo gold medalist. With Shamrock-like grace, Takimoto locked on an inverted heel hook, which he released in order to switch to a regular heel hook. Just as Bas was admonishing Takimoto for making that mistake, Costa tapped out. In a very classy move Takimoto politely accepted Costa’s offered gift of a copy of the Bible after the fight. With this win, the champion judoka has raised his pro MMA record to 5 -5.

Marlon Sandro vs. Nick Denis

This was meant to be one those classic battles between an experienced grappler (Sandro) and a powerful striker (Denis). Sandro demolished expectations, however, by immediately crushing Denis with a lead right uppercut that knocked the Canadian “Ninja of Love” completely out.

Chan Sung Jung vs. Masanori Kanehara

The evening’s second featherweight grand prix bout was a very closely fought and wildly exciting fight, and an early contender for 2009’s best fight of the year. In the first round, both fighters demonstrated that they had the skills and strength to match up with the other both standing and on the ground. The pace picked up considerably in the second, as the fighters engaged in a wild slugfest before taking it to the ground and exchanging submission attempts and escapes. Kanehara almost managed to give us a second heel hook finish on the night, but Jung managed to fight him off until the bell sounded. Jung battled furiously throughout the third but was unable to put Kanehara away. A slight advantage on the judges’ scorecards in the early rounds was enough to give Kanehara the right to advance to the tournament’s third round.

Alexandre Ribeiro vs. Keiichiro Yamamiya

It was great to see that Yamamiya is still active in the world of pro fighting. He was one of the guys who paved the way for Japanese MMA, fighting for Pancrase in the mid-1990s. This was the Grabaka fighter’s sixty-eighth pro fight, and by stark contrast it was Ribeiro’s second. The BJJ world champion was simply too much for the veteran to handle, though. Ribeiro dominated the fight, taking Yamamiya down and improving position more or less at will, and without ever seeming to fully exert himself. After toying with the veteran fighter for two rounds, Ribeiro caught him with a right hook less than a minute into the third, putting an end to the fight.

Leonardo Santos vs. Kazunori Yokota

This was a very hard-fought back and forth battle between two evenly matched fighters. Yokota, the former DEEP lightweight champion, used his strength, balance, and positioning to counter Santos’ speed and superior length. Although both men attempted and escaped multiple submissions, Santos spent the majority of the fight on his back and so it came as no surprise when the Japanese fighter was awarded a close spit decision.

Nam Phan vs. Michihiro Omigawa

Omigawa earned his second consecutive upset victory to continue his surprising run in the featherweight grand prix. Unlike his previous carefully fought decision win, Omigawa really brought it to Phan in this fight, going full out from the opening bell and not stopping until the referee called an end to it very late in the first round. Bas, and others, might have thought it was an early stoppage, but Phan seemed to take the referee’s call in stride. Other than an early heel hook attempt, the likeable California native had been on the defensive throughout the round.

Hatsu Hioki vs. Ronnie Mann

Hioki finished off the evening by advancing to the third round of the tournament in dominating fashion. He applied the kind of constant pressure and rapid transitions that brought to mind the early career of Genki Sudo, taking Mann down, advancing his position, and locking on a beautiful triangle choke that he reinforced by raining blows on his opponent’s trapped head. It brought a very impressive end to an entertaining evening of fights.

I eagerly anticipate more of the same at Sengoku Ninth Battle in August.

It’s a total oversimplification, and it’s not entirely true, but I’m going to say it anyway: DREAM attracts more attention because of the big names and freak show fights, but Sengoku is the organization that does everything it can to match the best fighters against each other and create the most exciting bouts. Most of the names on the card for Sengoku 8 will be familiar only to the hardest of hardcore MMA fans, but don’t let that stop you from going out of your way to catch this one. There are almost definitely going to be half a dozen barn-burners on the show.

Featherweight Grandprix Second Round Bouts:

Ronnie Mann vs. Hatsu Hioki

The Main Event of the evening pits Hioki, a 143-pound former Shooto contender against a Cage Rage vet who has never been submitted or knocked out in eighteen professional fights. Hioki has twice beaten Mark Hominick, the first time by choking him out to take the TKO featherweight title, and the second by decision in a fight where the fighters mostly stayed on their feet. Hioki advanced to the second round by convincingly beating the American Top Team’s Chris Manuel on the ground with a first-round triangle arm bar. Mann made the second round by earning a close decision victory over young ZST fighter Tetsuya Yamada at Seventh Battle.

Michihiro Omigawa vs. Nam Phan

Phan is probably best known in America for getting crushed by “JZ Calvan” at Dynamite! USA, but he has fought very well since that loss, including an impressive right hook knockout of Hideki Kadowaki in the tournament’s first round. Omigawa is a judo champion who scored a carefully-fought upset over IFL and Affliction vet L.C. Davis to advance to the second round. The decision win was Omigawa’s first victory since losing to Matt Wiman at UFC 76.

Chan Sung Jung vs. Masanori Kanehara

The undefeated “Korean Zombie” claimed the most exciting victory at Seventh Battle, going toe to toe with Shintaro Ishiwatari before knocking him down, taking his back, and choking him out. Kanehara, who has competed for ZST, DEEP, Shooto, and Pancrase, took a smartly fought but unexciting victory over Jung’s CMA Korea teammate Jong Man Kim in the first round of the grand prix. Hilariously, Kanehara promoted this fight by sparring with a guy dressed as a zombie at his open training session in Tokyo on April 22nd.

Nick Denis vs. Marlon Sandro

This will be a battle between two undefeated pro fighters. Both men looked very impressive in their first round victories. The Canadian fighter, nicknamed “The Ninja of Love” put a solid beating on former Pancrase rising star Seiya Kawahara and forced the referee to call a stop to the bout at 2:36 of the first. The Brazilian Sandro finished American Matt Jaggers in spectacular fashion, choking him old cold with an arm triangle while both fighters were standing.

The rest of the bouts scheduled for the card are listed below:

Stanislav Nedkov vs. Travis Wiuff
Leonardo Santos vs. Kazunori Yokota
Alexandre Ribeiro vs. Keiichiro Yamamiya
Michael Costa vs. Makoto Takimoto
Akihiko Mori vs. Maximo Blanco
Shigeki Osawa vs. Kota Ishibashi
Hirotoshi Saito vs. Yoshitaka Abe