UFC/Fighting - StrikeForc Live Stream
Saturday (02 April) at 04:00 (GMT +1)
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You don't understand – they're like 10 years apart, for one, or something like that. So said Strikeforce welterweight champion Nick Diaz, who pooh-poohed the idea that the recent fallout between Rashad Evans and Jon Jones could be an issue moving forward with his team.preview
There's a big difference between the bonds of the Cesar Gracie Fight Team and Jackson's MMA – or at least a few guys who, until very recently, shared time in the latter squad.
Nothing of the sort would happen.And they didn't grow up training together.They're not real training partners," Diaz said Thursday of Evans and Jones, former training partners at Jackson's who are scheduled to fight in the UFC later this year.
Diaz, who arrived late to the call, grew agitated when asked about the pending bout between the UFC light heavyweights and appeared to point the blame finger at the promotion that recently swallowed his employer.His teammates are brothers, Diaz said, and they never would fight each other.
The usual Diaz fire was present during a conference call in support of his third attempted title defense, which comes April 9 at "Strikeforce: Diaz vs Daley," which airs on Showtime from Valley View Casino Center in San Diego. Jones and Evans are something else.
I'm missing a very serious practice.They're not focused on who's important to them in life.Jones] is just brand new into the sport, and he's doing whatever," Diaz said.
I've got what works and what got me there, and that's my team.They got him so busy making photo shoots, press conference and conference calls and all that.I've got a lot of people right in front of me on the mat right now training, and I need my practice.That's a disgusting thought to have to fight my brother.It's simple.It's stuff like this – that's what they've got them doing.I'm missing practice right now being on this.I've got training partners and what works.
I don't even appreciate being asked about that.
They pay me way too much money but not enough, as far as I'm concerned. We help each other get better, so it's not right. Could he make an exception one day, maybe for the right price?So I'll definitely take a pay cut. That's already a done deal. It runs deeper than money and team.Thankfully, Diaz had one of his brothers on the call who had his back: Strikeforce lightweight champion Gilbert Melendez, who faces Tatsuya Kawajiri in the co-main event of "Strikeforce: Diaz vs.They don't even pay me close to enough money to consider that sort of thing," he said. What happens if his training partner Jake Shields wins the title at UFC 129 against Georges St-Pierre and a superfight materializes between Strikeforce and UFC champions?
What could make it happen?
It's family and loyalty.I fight with him today, yesterday in training. We're a family, and someone like Nick, Nate (Diaz) and Jake have all helped me become the fighter I am, and how am I going to use these skills that they taught me against them? And if you're turning around and offering me $10 million to fight my boy, than I'm sure someone's going to offer me $8 million to fight somebody else. It's more than training partners," he said.Nothing," Diaz said, who meets Georges St-Pierre at UFC 1 "I fight with him.
