Bloody Elbow, for MMA and UFC news

Thomas Myers thinks someone was pulling the strings behind the scenes at UFC 137: "Cesar Gracie, The Diabolical Genius Calling The UFC's Welterweight Shots." Read it at MMA Nation.

Cesar Gracie, trainer of Jake Shields, tells Sherdog that he's unhappy that Renzo Gracie trained Georges St. Pierre for this weekend's fight, despite the fact that Renzo and GSP have been training together for some time: "Renzo’s like a brother to me. You have to understand, we grew up together. Nothing’s going to change. People try to make a big thing about it, but I did have a talk with Renzo and I said, ‘Renzo, you’re training a guy that doesn’t represent your academy, that represents another academy, to fight a guy that represents a Gracie academy. It doesn’t make sense to me. It just doesn’t.’ . … I did have that discussion with Renzo. I don’t know if anything came about from it, but that was pretty much it. I’m an old-school guy. … I don’t know exactly what they’re doing over there with that. It’s just not my way. I’m old school and I’m going to die old school. That’s who I am." Photo: Luca Atalla for GracieMag.com UFC 129: St. Pierre vs. Shields coverage

Shinya Aoki to train with Cesar Gracie Jiu-Jitsu: "Cesar Gracie accepts Aoki Shinya's request to train at Team Graciefighter. Invites more Japanese fighters to make the trip." HT: graciefighter.com, photo via sherdog.com, handlas Strikeforce: Nashville on CBS coverage

Cesar Gracie says "Strikeforce: Nashville" brawl is is overblown, hypocritical: "So a fight broke out at a fight. That's not a good thing, and I'm not condoning it ... but a lot of people are jumping on this because they're babies. The same night, they had an NBA fight. They want to talk about a fight at an MMA fight between MMA fighters." "How would it be damaging?" Gracie said. "If you're a sports fan, you're used to seeing fights all the time. It's really, seriously, a bunch of pussies latching on to this and trying to make it a bigger deal than it is. Is it a good thing? It's not a good thing. We're sorry. Everybody involved has apologized. "But you've got a lot of crybabies that are going to latch on to this to the bitter end, but they're not going to say anything when a hockey game has fights every night. Young sport, old sport – people are making a much bigger deal than this. It's hype; it's all hype." Full interview at mmajunkie.com Strikeforce: Nashville on CBS coverage

Cesar Gracie talks Jake Shields, Gilbert Melendez and Nick Diaz: - "Jake [Shields] is one of the world’s best welterweights. In my opinion he is the #2 in the world. His next fight will be against Dan Henderson at middleweight. Depending on how he does will determine his future weight class." - "Shinya Aoki presents many challenges [for Gilbert Melendez]. He [Aoki] is extremely flexible and has good submissions. It is important to not trade submissions with him. Strikes must be employed to keep him off balance and uncomfortable." - We are currently in discussion for Nick [Diaz]’s next fight. It is possible that he will be competing for Dream in his next fight. If he fights in Strikeforce first he will probably fight a weight class up at 185lbs. As of yet we do not have a firm opponent. HT: m-1global.com Strikeforce: Nashville on CBS coverage

Jake Shields, who spends training time at Cesar Gracie's gym, comments on Jose Canseco's involvement there: "I heard he was out there with Cesar, but personally I’m not a big fan of his. I don’t want to knock anything that Cesar and my camp has done, but I don’t really want to have anything to do with Jose," Shields told MMAWeekly Radio. "I don’t really want to help the guy. I haven’t met the guy yet, but seeing his track record, I don’t really want to have anything to do with him," said the 31-year-old fighter. "He’s not someone I want in my life. I don’t want to help a guy out who has constantly screwed everyone over who has been close to him." "I like Hershel Walker and I’d like to see Hershel kick his (expletive), but if he was fighting under my team that would make me feel a little weird, so I don’t know how I feel about that," said Shields. "Being a friend and fan of Hershel and having a guy that I think is kind of a scumbag coming to my gym... I guess that’s Cesar’s decision. I don’t want to knock his decision, but I certainly wouldn’t let him come into my gym." HT: MMA Weekly Strikeforce: Nashville coverage