Jose Garcia, a world-renowned sports therapist and personal trainer for a slew of UFC athletes has opened up about the ongoing drama between Nick Diaz and famed MMA coach Cesar Garcia.
In August, Diaz was scheduled for a return to the Octagon against Vicente Luque at UFC Abu Dhabi. Unfortunately, the fight never came to fruition after Diaz was forced to bow out due to travel-related complications. Few other details were provided at the time but during an interview with BJPenn.com, Garcia revealed that Gracie played a major role in Diaz’s removal from the event at Etihad Arena.
Per the report, Gracie was attempting to get Diaz back under contract so that he could financially benefit from his return to the Octagon.
Diaz had signed on to fight Luque in Abu Dhabi independently after refusing to sign the deal with Gracie. That prompted Gracie to do everything in his power to sabotage Diaz’s return, according to Garcia.
As it stands, Diaz is not signed to any manager and, as a result, has been relentlessly pursued by “leaches” looking to profit off the Stockton native’s comeback. That includes Cesar Gracie who is said to be once again in hot pursuit of a payday now that Diaz’s fight against Luque has been rebooked for UFC 310 in Las Vegas.
Garcia claims Gracie’s involvement resulted in Diaz’s lackluster showing against Robbie Lawler
According to BJPenn.com’s Chris Taylor, Gracie sent one of his former students out to Houston last week where Diaz currently resides to check on the MMA star. This was Gracie’s second failed attempt to get Diaz back out to Northern California to sign a contract.
The whole ordeal has reportedly caused Diaz a great deal of stress and played a big role in his lackluster performance against Robbie Lawler at UFC 266.
“Nick rekindles his communication with Cesar just to be on good terms before leaving for Florida to train and isolate himself from the COVID restriction that was in California,” Garcia said. “He gets in amazing shape and then Cesar sees the opportunity to slide in and capitalize off of Nick’s last possible fight vs Robbie. Another management team had already secured the Robbie Lawlor fight contract while Nick was in Florida. But Cesar then got involved and found a way to void Nick’s contract so that he could get the contract made in his name.
“Cesar had nothing to do with getting this fight made, Cesar was under the impression that Nick was still retired. Once he saw that Nick was active, Cesar manipulated his way into Nick’s life so that he could benefit from voiding the current contract so that he could make his own. Cesar’s whole motive was to be on the contract and get paid for Nick’s next fight.
“Nick gets out of shape in California under Cesar’s watch and instead of pulling him out of the fight, Gracie forces Nick to move forward with it. Nick walked into that fight in bad physical and mental shape. So, Cesar makes his money and promises to help Nick with his taxes but proceeds to be nonexistent to help him. Nick basically remained in the exact same IRS situation that he was in going into that fight.”
Garcia claims that Cesar Gracie is still a source of stress for Nick Diaz
With Diaz once again signed to fight, Garcia revealed that Gracie is once again slinking around looking to land a deal with the ‘Stockton General’ which has caused Diaz a significant of stress as he prepares to enter his fight camp.
“It is important that the MMA world knows what type of person Cesar Gracie is”, said Garcia. “He’s a snake and an opportunist that only has his own best interest in mind. He does not care about Nick’s mental health, nor does he care if Nick has a full fight camp as we saw when he fought Robbie Lawler (Cesar was in charge of fight negotiations and fight camp prep for that fight).
“Nick is excited to return to the Octagon and we are all excited to see his return. However, we want to see him mentally healthy and with a full fight camp. Cesar has caused Nick a lot of stress this last week.”