Jay Hieron continues fighting hard for a fair shake in Strikeforce
Published by Zach Arnold on January 28th, 2010 in Current Events

 Print |  Email |  RSS

On a relatively bizarre fight card for this Saturday’s Strikeforce event in South Florida, one man’s struggles to make a big splash in Mixed Martial Arts continues to stand out. Overshadowed by pro-wrestler Bobby Lashley and 47-year retired football player Herschel Walker, MMA veteran Jay Hieron is once again struggling to try to make it to television for a major fight promotion.

The truth is that Hieron doesn’t deserve the treatment he is getting. With that said, Jay Hieron is proof positive that being successful in Mixed Martial Arts is often determined by how strong your political and business connections are as opposed to what your skill level is in the ring/cage.

Of all the IFL veterans who have latched onto other promotions since that group’s collapse last year, Hieron and Roy Nelson are the two most successful fighters so far. Hieron is a legitimate talent who has been constantly screwed over by promotions collapsing due to financial difficulties and fighters who can’t get their act together. The end result is that Hieron is left often on his own accord without a lot of political leverage. Hieron thought he had caught the break of a lifetime when he was scheduled to face Nick Diaz last year in California. Instead, Diaz flaked out of signing a contract and didn’t fight in California due to licensing issues. Naturally, the odor of marijuana issues reared it’s head in the media. Hieron was left to fight former Ultimate Fighter cast member Jesse Taylor in a dark match on Strikeforce’s event last August in San Jose. Hieron lost money from sponsors because his fight did not air on Showtime.

No one has been screwed over more than Hieron has been over the last couple of years in the business. He’s been stuck in a training camp for the last six months in Las Vegas. In a recent interview with Dave Farra of R a w v e g a s . t v, Hieron expressed gratitude to the fact that he’s been able to stick with everything despite all of the horrible luck he has had to deal with.

“Yeah, it’s been a blessing that it’s been this long because I’ve been training for a southpaw, which was supposed to be Nick Diaz and you know I’m still fighting a southpaw which is Joe Riggs.”

And don’t even mention the name Nick Diaz around him.

“No thoughts, I don’t even care about him, I mean he’s not even on my mind. Joe Riggs, I’m fighting him this weekend, so you know, after the fight we’ll sit down with Strikeforce and see what’s up.

“Of course, it’s a little frustrating you know, people don’t see that stuff we deal with behind-the-scenes but you know again I’m a professional and you know I can only control what I do and that’s Saturday night on the 30th, get out there and do what I do best. If I concentrate on that negative stuff, you know, I’m going to feel it in my training, I’m going to feel it when I fight so I try to be 100% positive and it takes work, man, I got to tell myself it’s all good, there’s a bigger and better plan for me, everything happens for a reason, so again it’s not the end of the world, I’m still on the card, I’m still fighting, you know, patience is my servant man, I mean, I’ll get my shot.”

They (Strikeforce) were waiting for Diaz to come to and to sign the contract and whatever. For some reason he didn’t sign the contract and now I’m not fighting him, so I’m not fighting for the title. Again, I’m not trying to feed into the negative and start worrying about why I’m not getting a title shot, why I’m not on TV, of course it hurts my pocket because of sponsors and fans that want to see me, they’re not getting to see me, but I don’t have any control of that. I’m still, I still think about the positive sides about it. I’m blessed, I’m healthy, I’m still here, I’m still in the sport, I’m still fighting, so I concentrate more on that.”

Hieron vs. Riggs will air on E A S p o r t s m m a . c o m and not on Showtime. Instead, fights involving Herschel Walker and Bobby Lashley will take center stage. A women’s match between Marloes Coenen and Cris Cyborg has also been completely overshadowed by the presence of Walker making his MMA debut. When asked about the strange matchmaking for the Florida event, Hieron put on his best face.

“If you look at it outside-looking-in, it’s good business by Strikeforce because there’s NFL, Super Bowl, so they’re getting all them football player fans you know for Herschel Walker so I mean if that’s what they want to do, put butts in the seats, they’re achieving that I believe.

Hieron is once again in a dark match position. Is it because he is perceived as boring? What about the fact that his opponent has a relatively decent following of fans in MMA?

“Of course, I mean you know I prepare myself every fight to go out and try to put on the best fight I can, the most you know exciting fight ever but you know I mean you know when I get out there and fight tough guys, you know I’m so sharp and I’m in tremendous shape right now. You know, it’s going to be an exciting fight no matter what.

“Tough guy you know, he’s been on the top show, he’s fought for the title in the UFC, so you know it’s a fight that I want to fight right now. This is a fight that makes sense for me and my career right now and just the kind of guys that I want to fight. Guys with name, so at the end of the fight, I have something to gain from. My stock goes up and you know bigger and better things.”

Hieron knows what is at stake on Saturday night. He has to win. Unfortunately for Jay, even if he wins, that doesn’t necessarily guarantee him a spot on television of a major card. It’s frustrating, but it’s not in his control right now.

“You know, time, it’ll come man, it’ll come. … I fight on Saturday, all steps in the right direction, we’ll site down after that, see what’s going on, but you know I do the hard work every day, I’m here every day, twice a day, all year round, I take a week or two weeks off so you know if you have that much drive, motivation and dedication, you know stuff’s going to happen, doors are going to open, and that’s you know I live by that. Hard work pays off.”