Strikeforce welterweight champion Nick Diaz is about 10 days from his title defense against Evangelista “Cyborg” Santos. If most fans had their way, Diaz would be fighting Jason “Mayhem” Miller that night.
Strikeforce welterweight champion Nick Diaz is about 10 days from his title defense against Evangelista “Cyborg” Santos. If most fans had their way, Diaz would be fighting Jason “Mayhem” Miller that night.
The rivalry between Diaz and Miller exploded last April, when the two were among the participants in a post-fight brawl following Jake Shields’ championship win over Dan Henderson.
On Wednesday’s edition of The MMA Hour, Diaz’s manager and trainer Cesar Gracie explained why the matchup has yet to happen.
(Diaz insists all negotiations be handled through the proper channels. PicProps: CombatLifestyle.)
Don’t fret homies, Nick Diaz is totally down to fight Jason “Mayhem” Miller in the Strikeforce cage just as soon as that organization a…
(Diaz insists all negotiations be handled through the proper channels. PicProps: CombatLifestyle.)
Don’t fret homies, Nick Diaz is totally down to fight Jason “Mayhem” Miller in the Strikeforce cage just as soon as that organization actually gets around to offering him the fight. So said Diaz mentor and trainer-to-the-stars (seriously, any stars) Cesar Gracie during an appearance on MMA Junkie Radio this week. One problem: Gracie said Mayhem can’t make welterweight and Diaz damn sure isn’t going all the way up to 185-pounds to fight him, so CEO Scott Coker (or maybe somebody who really wears the pants in Strikeforce) is going to have to figure out a catchweight. Any implication to the contrary is just Miller running his mouth, Gracie said.
"If that fight was offered, yeah, we’d probably take that fight," Gracie said. "We’d just have to look at what weight class it’s going to be in and apparently, Mayhem can’t make 170. We’re not going to accommodate going to 185 … That fight just hasn’t been offered to us in an official manner yet. I know Mayhem goes on his websites and (says) Nick is ducking him and everything. It’s kind of hard to duck someone when you haven’t even been offered the fight. It’s just Mayhem talking about that. Until it’s been offered, you can’t say yes or no."
(Cain Velasquez and George Lopez enjoy a PBJ and milk in honor of Brock Lesnar’s cracker-ass heritage. Props: fpvault)
– Five Lessons: UFC 121 Edition (Versus MMA Beat)
– Cesar Gracie Says Jake Shields Is the Guy to Beat GSP (FightMagazine)
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(Cain Velasquez and George Lopez enjoy a PBJ and milk in honor of Brock Lesnar’s cracker-ass heritage. Props: fpvault)
("I got your conference call for you right here, Coker.")Apparently Nick Diaz doesn’t like conference calls.
If Strikeforce would have read his "Things I don’t like," rider he sent along to them with his signed contract, they woul…
("I got your conference call for you right here, Coker.")
Apparently Nick Diaz doesn’t like conference calls.
If Strikeforce would have read his "Things I don’t like," rider he sent along to them with his signed contract, they would have realized that "conference calls" were on the list before "Mayhem Miller" and after "children" and they wouldn’t have scheduled him for a media call that he had no intention of participating in.
So instead of pulling the plug on today’s call completely when they realized Nick wasn’t interested in talking to reporters about his October 9 title defense against KJ Noons, they got the next best guest they could get on short notice for the call: Cesar Gracie. No, seriously, that’s the best they could do.
According to Diaz’s outspoken coach, it "isn’t in Nick’s psyche" to do conference calls with his upcoming opponents, but he didn’t have a problem pretending to know what Nick would say in response to reporters’ questions.
Here’s the transcript of the call, which seemed suspiciously more like a scripted infomercial than a conference call at times. I’m not surprised Nick took one look at his lines and said, "Fuck that; I’m out."
