Filed under: UFC, MMA Fighting Exclusive, NewsUFC president Dana White has already stated that the new UFC 137 main event between BJ Penn and Nick Diaz will not be a five-round fight because, as he put it, “they haven’t trained for five rounds.”
UFC president Dana White has already stated that the new UFC 137 main event between BJ Penn and Nick Diaz will not be a five-round fight because, as he put it, “they haven’t trained for five rounds.”
However, Diaz’s manager and trainer Cesar Gracie wants the world to know that Diaz is ready and willing to go five rounds with “The Prodigy” on Oct. 29.
“If they can’t fight five rounds against each other, how are they going to fight five rounds against GSP?,” Gracie said to MMAFighting.com on Tuesday.
Gracie said he told White that Diaz wanted to change the fight to a five-rounder but had yet to hear back from Penn’s camp. After speaking to Gracie, both White and Penn could not be immediately reached for comment.
“Dana is good with it,” he said. “We’ve agreed to it. If BJ agrees to it, we’ll make it happen.”
Gracie added that there was no hesitation on Diaz’s part to agree to a five-round fight after hearing the news of GSP’s injury and subsequent removal from the card.
“These guys have to prove they are ready. These guys are fighters. BJ has always said he’s a warrior. … The old school days of MMA, back when it was NHB, they fought forever.
“Don’t be scared, homie. Let’s make it five rounds.”
Filed under: UFC, FanHouse Exclusive, NewsAt UFC 130, Dana White didn’t sound very confident that he would be able to put together the much talked about Nick Diaz vs. Georges St-Pierre super-fight. However, on Wednesday afternoon, the UFC president ann…
At UFC 130, Dana White didn’t sound very confident that he would be able to put together the much talked about Nick Diaz vs. Georges St-Pierre super-fight. However, on Wednesday afternoon, the UFC president announced the fight was a done deal and would take place at UFC 137 on Oct. 29 in Las Vegas.
MMA Fighting spoke to Cesar Gracie, Diaz’s manager and trainer, about how the deal was completed and what this means for Diaz’s Strikeforce future.
A transcript of the conversation can be found below.
Ariel Helwani: How did this deal get done?
Cesar Gracie: We just sent the contract yesterday and it arrived in their office today.
Is Nick now a UFC fighter?
You know what? That’s an interesting question and they have not told me how they’re going to structure that.
So is his Strikeforce belt on the line?
I don’t know. I truly don’t. They haven’t told me if his belt is on the line. I don’t think so. This is not like that because if his belt was on the line that would make GSP the Strikeforce champion (if he wins). And then what? He’s going to fight someone from Strikeforce? I don’t think that’s happening. But then again, refer to Dana on that one because I truly don’t know.
Did Nick sign a one-fight deal with the UFC or a longer one?
We have a new deal. Multi-fight, multi-year contract with the UFC.
How many fights is the new contract for?
I can tell you it’s a multi-fight, multi-year contract. I can’t tell you how many fights.
So it sounds like he is a UFC fighter now.
Right, but the contract does give the option to fight in Strikeforce. So what that opens up is the potential for him to also fight in Strikeforce.
Over the weekend, Dana White referred to some issues which were stopping this fight from being made. Do you know how those were resolved?
There was a lot of misinformation — there were a lot of reports out there that weren’t true. Showtime, I don’t think was a problem, to be honest with you, at all. They don’t have a contract with Nick. Nick’s contract is strictly with Explosion [Strikeforce’s parent company prior to the Zuffa purchase]. It has never been a contract with Showtime. So the reports you heard were erroneous and false. Other than that, the hurdles were the [Jeff] Lacy thing, stuff like that. I don’t know if they were Strikeforce, and if they were, Nick signed a new contract that dissolved his old contract with Strikeforce.
Do you know if Showtime is getting any kind of percentage of the pay-per-view?
No idea.
Any idea why Vegas was chosen as the site of the fight?
There were two venues they were looking at: one was in Canada and one was in Vegas. We didn’t know which one it was going to be until today.
Would you have been OK with fighting in Canada?
I did tell them it would be better if we fought in Vegas, obviously, because then the belt wouldn’t have very much further to go once Nick gets it (laughs).
Do you think this marks the end of Nick’s run in Strikeforce?
Hopefully. If he’s back in Strikeforce, I would imagine that’s because he lost his next fight.
Filed under: StrikeforceDavid and Damion Douglas will join some fairly elite company at Friday’s Strikeforce Challengers show in Stockton, Calif., about a 40-mile drive from their Antioch stomping grounds.
David and Damion Douglas will join some fairly elite company at Friday’s Strikeforce Challengers show in Stockton, Calif., about a 40-mile drive from their Antioch stomping grounds.
The fraternal twin brothers will fight on the same card, joining the likes of Antonio Rodrigo and Antonio Rogerio Nogueira (Pride Critical Countdown Absolute, July 1, 2006) and Matt and Mark Hughes (Extreme Challenge 32, May 21, 2000) as twins who have accomplished the rare feat.
The Cesar Gracie-trained Douglas brothers, who fought together on an EliteXC show in September 2008, will do it this time on a televised card on Showtime, putting their entry on a future MMA trivia question a little more in the spotlight than their predecessors.
But if you’re imagining David and Damion as the kind of twins who do everything together, like in a cheesy ’80s Doublemint gum commercial, think again.
UFC president Dana White has already stated that the new UFC 137 main event between BJ Penn and Nick Diaz will not be a five-round fight because, as he put it, “they haven’t trained for five rounds.”
At UFC 130, 
David and Damion Douglas will join some fairly elite company at Friday’s Strikeforce Challengers show in Stockton, Calif., about a 40-mile drive from their Antioch stomping grounds.