This morning, Nick Diaz’s head coach Cesar Gracie issued an official statement explaining his protege’s failure to show this weekend in his World Jiu-Jitsu Expo superfight against Braulio Estima. Until today, media speculation as to why Diaz elected not to attend one of the most publicized Jiu-Jitsu matches in recent memory revolved mostly around questions regarding Estima’s weight. According to Gracie, the weight issue was the symptom of a larger problem. In his official statement published on the Gracie Fighter Website, Cesar recounted the problematic events revolving around the promotion.
A week or so later it was all over the Internet that Braulio had joined the “Blackzillians” and was training for an mma fight. We had been lied to. Furthermore it was evident that Nick’s sole condition that he not go against a wanna be mma guy was violated and this was in fact an attempt by Braulio to ignite an mma career.Nick was to have been accurately portrayed as a fighter returning to his BJJ roots. He had even agreed to give his entire purse to charity; St Jude’s Children’s Hospital for kids with cancer. If you know the story of Ralph Gracie’s son you would understand why this charity was chosen. Nick’s name having been added to this event had saved it but now it was clear he was to be the patsy, not respected but used.
Gracie goes on to detail other shady dealings from the event promoter referred to only as Junior. Given that Diaz has had more than one major downturn during his MMA career due to no-showing events, placing blame on some promotional razzmatazz from a mononymous Brazilian was met with incredulity from people in the MMA and BJJ communities. UFC president Dana White even went on twitter to tell the fans that they were crazy to be shocked by Diaz not making an appearance.
However, when viewing statements Estima made after the event, there is at least some evidence that the BJJ legend was trying to use the match with Diaz to launch an MMA career. In an interview with MMA Fighting, Estima even mentioned the possibility of switching the field of conflict to mixed martial arts, in passing.
“”I’ll fight him in MMA,” Estima said to MMA Fighting. “If maybe he feels more comfortable there, I’ll do it. I gave up a lot of things to make this to happen. I came here to fight, you said you were going to be here, were going to give your purse to charity. It is very disrespectful.”
After making the somewhat believable assertion that Estima was using Diaz as a play for the bigger money to be found in MMA, Cesar Gracie went on to attribute the promotional dealings that put the match up in turmoil to cronyism amongst Brazilians.
As a Brazilian I love Brazil but not all things Brazilian. In the last decade I have witnessed Brazilian cronies running the IBJJF and making it impossible for Americans to get a fair shake when competing against their Brazilian countrymen. These cronies have instituted rules to where if you miss weight by even half a pound you are disqualified and not refunded your entry fee. They gladly keep your money and treat you like crap in your country because they can. One of these cronies (Junior) decided to bend all the rules for Braulio Estima and treat Nick Diaz like crap. Sorry that didn’t work out here.
Gracie also mentioned that Diaz still had to shoulder some of the blame for the no-show and that the former UFC welterweight title challenger’s hand in the matter would be dealt with internally by the Cesar Gracie Fight Team.
UPDATE: Estima has issued a response to the Cesar Gracie statement. Check here for more details.
