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Wednesday, Oct 19, 2011

Cesar Gracie Says Nick Diaz Not to Blame for Late Arrival on UFC 137 Call

Gracie (right) with Jake Shields (left) and Diaz

By FCF Staff

It didn’t take long for Twitter to fill up with the name Nick Diaz today, as after the welterweight wasn’t initially on a pre-UFC 137 teleconference this morning, many likely wondered what, if anything, the UFC might do to discipline the veteran.

Although Diaz eventually showed up on the call, reportedly 45 minutes late, his long time trainer Cesar Gracie says the 28 year-old fighter isn’t to blame.

“He didn’t know about the call,” Gracie told FCF. “We just found out about the call yesterday, and I think what happened is that the UFC has a PR department and Dana (White) even said they dropped the ball, they never got a hold of him.”

When news first broke today that Diaz hadn’t appeared yet for the teleconference call, White proceeded to ‘tweet’ that the promotion had indeed “dropped the ball on the Nick Diaz no show.”

“It was kind of a shock to me when I got the thing yesterday and they said ‘make sure that Nick’s on the call,” Gracie added. “I went, ‘what call?’ So I went to the Academy last night but Nick was off doing a training session, which probably means he was doing a 50 mile bike-ride and then a 10 mile run, and it literally takes almost all night. He goes into these extreme sessions where he doesn’t answer his phone. So nobody got a hold of him last night but luckily we were able to track him down today.”

Diaz made headlines in September, when after failing to attend two press conferences to promote his then scheduled UFC 137 bout with champion Georges St. Pierre, the promotion replaced him with Carlos Condit.

Soon after, Diaz was reinstated on the October 29th event to fight BJ Penn, which will now headline the upcoming card due to St. Pierre’s recent withdrawal because of injury.

 

 

 

 

posted by FCF Staff @ 3:39 pm
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