Cesar Gracie's Playing With Fire.
by R.T. on May 7, 2011 1:06 PM EDT
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So unless you've been living under a rock you're aware that Nick Diaz's manager Cesar Gracie has been telling anyone that'll listen, that the Strikeforce champions next fight will be in boxing. Well it looks like the Gracie camp has upped the anti. A: By putting pen to paper on a contract to box past his prime former 168lbs champ Jeff Lacey. and B: By going on MMA Junkie and essentially telling Dana to put up or shut up.
"Barring something like (UFC president) Dana White telling us, 'Hey, we really need you to fight GSP at such-and-such a date and it conflicts with [boxing] – barring that, we're going to fight Lacy," said Diaz manager and trainer Cesar Gracie."
So basically he's trying to hold the UFC's big money fight for the welter weight division hostage with a totally irrelevant boxing match between a 1-0 boxer and a 25-4 boxer coming out of retirement. A fight that probably will not make television. Fightlinker weighs in with just how stupid this is and it's potential repercussions.
The message being sent by Cesar Gracie and Nick Diaz should be crystal clear to a guy like Dana White: offer Nick Diaz a tasty check and a fight with Georges St. Pierre and this boxing business goes away quietly. Play it cheap and one of the star draws in the promotion you just bought fucks off to the land of Queensbury Rules, giving you a massive promotional headache in the process. Such a strategy might have worked before the Zuffa buyout of Strikeforce, but now they've put themselves into the arena with a guy that takes this kind of shit personally. This is a fact that Nick Diaz and his management have made a critical error in overlooking. The logical reaction would be for Dana to pony up the money and give Diaz what he wants. Which he was probably ready to do anyways. But now the gauntlet has been thrown down, and we all know with 99.9% certainty that Dana's reaction will be something along the lines of "Fuck that fucking motherfucker. I run this fucking business. He can rot in Strikeforce for the next two years." Dana may not be able to stop Diaz from boxing, but he can definitely stop him from fighting in the UFC and having a meaningful MMA career.
Cesar Gracie has over played his hand, and created a tense negotiating environment, not to mention a potential legal head ache for both Mr.Diaz and Zuffa if they can get the big money fight with GSP. Randy Couture famously went up against the Zuffa machine and couldn't hardball them with a fedor fight. So I don't think Jeff "Left Hook" Lacey is gonna cut it for Diaz, even if it is more legally plausible to get done, it wont be worth it if they do.
ht:
It's Fighting Stupid
fightlinker.com
mmajunkie.com
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Just as a small critique- first, your spelling of Cesar’s name in the title and throughout the article, and second- give us more of what you’re thinking. I personally disagree with Fightlinker because this is exactly how Cesar and Nick should be playing their cards. The possibility of boxing is right there in the contract and Nick wants good money. With his name now, he’ll definitely bring eyes to the PPVs and a GSP/ Diaz superfight would be massive. Cesar isn’t threatening anyone in that quote, he’s making their stance known to the media and forcing Dana’s hand in the matter.
U C O N N Huskies
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by Austin Martin on May 7, 2011 3:42 PM EDT reply actions 2 recs
I think they're doing exactly what they need to be doing.
Keeping Nicks name in the headlines of TWO sports.
Savy.
Learn JiuJitsu, it's fun.
ROCKY MARCIANO 49-0 HW Champion of the World.
i think any other scenario dana would curse up a storm and tell everyone involved to fuck them selves..
but dana knows that his best asset gsp is #1 getting left without any viable contenders, and 2 getting a lot of slack lately for being “boring” and inability to finish fights.. dana knows that diaz would change all that.. diaz would be the perfect villain to gsp’s good boy image (sort of like dan hardy was but much more skilled).. so the way i see it dana needs to pony up unless he wants gsp’s star to diminish
Never make threats Cesar, someone will call you on your bullshit. Dana and the UFC model are very conscious of keeping the promotion bigger than it’s stars, and Nick Diaz is not even there yet anyway. The value of getting a title shot, even if you lose, is worth far more than whatever Nick expects to be paid. The problem is, I’m not sure Nick and Cesar are capable of cashing in on that.
What's this war in the heart of nature? Why does nature vie with itself? The land contend with the sea? Is there an avenging power in nature? Not one power, but two?
by Kwisatz Haderach on May 7, 2011 5:41 PM EDT reply actions
i'm just glad
the fighter has a little bit of leverage for once.
by tkired on May 7, 2011 9:16 PM EDT reply actions 1 recs
There is no leverage, were talking about getting high 5 figures at best in a one off, barely televised boxing match, instead of a potential 7 figure plus, 3 to 5 fight run with a title shot. All the Caesar Gracie camp is doing with their boxing talk is creating an unnecessary adversarial relationship with Zuffa and Co.
YAMATO DAMASHII
itsfightingstupid.blogspot.net
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Dude has it in his contract that he can box
end of discussion
unless he signed a new one with the buy out that doesn’t have such clause
Dana get get mad all he wants but if it’s on paper it’s on paper
sure he can go out of his way to make him rot, but that is going to happen anyways
¬_¬
by ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ on May 8, 2011 4:23 AM EDT reply actions 1 recs
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