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Despite riding out a year long suspension following UFC 143, Nick Diaz hasn't failed to make headlines in the last 6 months. First, he announced his retirement after dropping a controversial decision to Carlos Condit. Then aggressively contested his failed drug test. On top of that, he skipped out on a Brazilian Jiu Jitsu competition. And most recently, he announced last week via his manager Cesar Gracie that he wants a super fight against Middleweight champion Anderson Silva.
Now, Gracie revealed in an interview that he wants the UFC to allow Diaz to fight outside of the Nevada State Athletic Commission's (NSAC) jurisdiction (via The Score):
They always change the rules on Nick. There's some collusion to it all. Tyson Griffin tested positive for marijuana. It never came out but the UFC knew about it and he didn't get a suspension. Diego Sanchez only got a suspension in California for three months. Nevada only has jurisdiction in Nevada so technically you should be able to fight anywhere else because the rules are different in each commission.
(Other athletic commissions) don't care. Nick could fight in Texas tomorrow. Other commissions do not respect the NSAC’s decisions. Vitor Belfort fought Dan Henderson at the last PRIDE show in Nevada [actually the second last] , tested positive for steroids, got a year suspension [actually nine months] and said, ‘I don't care, I’m not suspended outside of Nevada’ and went to Japan and fought [actually England]. You know what, no one cared about it, the UFC didn't care about it when they signed him and he didn't get any other retribution for it. There have been many examples of this.
Apparently, this is not just idle bantering by Cesar Gracie. He intends to bring the issue up to Dana White at a meeting they have scheduled next week for contract negotiations:
I’m gonna ask Dana White why other guys get to do it but why it’s always a different rule for Nick. It doesn’t make any sense. That’s part of the issue Nick doesn’t understand and is frustrated with. He said, ‘Hey I can’t win a fight with Nevada’ — (Carlos) Condit runs around the whole fight and Nick gets the loss, but in the (Clay) Guida fight [where Guida backpedaled] that Dana said was a terrible fight, it was a split decision for Gray Maynard. It’s always something different for Nick
This entire line of thinking is absolutely ridiculous and I have trouble thinking Cesar doesn't know that. First, it's widely known that athletic commissions across the nation respect the decisions of their peers and will not license a fighter currently under suspension. Tyson Griffin was suspended by the Michigan SAC. Although Vitor Belfort did compete internationally while under suspension, that was two years before he fought for the UFC. There is absolutely no precedent to suggest Dana White and the UFC would be inclined to disregard the NSAC's decision.
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