UFC President Dana White recently reported an immediate rematch between Diaz and current UFC interim welterweight champion Condit would be scheduled to take place before Georges St. Pierre returned from injury. Just as quickly as the rematch was reported, rumors started that someone from either Diaz or Condit had decided against the bout.

According to a report by MMAJunkie it may have been Gracie himself who nixed things though he did not offer much more than to say the match would not go down, leaving those around the MMA world to sit and wonder.

Gracie’s comments are just the latest in a string of twists and turns surrounding the scrap. Condit is still expected to be in Las Vegas on Friday to meet with White. Until then fans will continue to have to wait and see what happens next if anything at all.

PHOTO CREDIT – UFC

Trainer Cesar Gracie recently came forward to express his belief that fans hadn’t seen the last of Nick Diaz inside the Octagon or any cage for that matter. While Gracie thought it would take Diaz a year or so before getting the itch to fight again, it appears it will actually only be a matter of months after UFC President Dana White went on Twitter to confirm Condit had agreed to fight Diaz again and clear up any confusion surrounding the outcome of their first bout.

White did not go into specifics but did say that Condit wanted the match-up to occur. Today’s news came as a complete 180 from comments made this week by Condit’s manager who said his client would wait for Georges St. Pierre rather than face Diaz again in an immediate rematch.

This past weekend, Diaz was handed a decision loss at the hands of Carlos Condit in the main event of UFC 143. The bout was for the interim UFC welterweight title and Diaz, along with numerous fans, fellow fighters, and media members, felt like he deserved to have his hand raised when things were done.

During the post-fight interview, the Stockton native announced he was done with MMA and was moving on, citing the judges’ approach to scoring as the reason for his departure from the sport. The news shocked just about everyone watching in attendance and live on pay-per-view, including Joe Rogan who was conducting the post-fight interview. When Rogan continued to push for more from Diaz, the controversial welterweight explained he felt all Condit did was run from him.

PHOTO CREDIT – HDNET/UFC

Gracie, Diaz’s head trainer and manager, recently called Condit’s counter-pointing strategy into question after “The Natural Born Killer” avoiding engaging in the “dogfight” he’d implied he was up for during the weeks leading up to Saturday night’s scrap.

“Carlos was running at one point, and Nick slapped him in the face said, ‘Quit running.’ We were there for a dogfight. Carlos said he’d provide for the fans a dogfight, a great fight where they were going to go at it. That was not a dogfight. It takes two to make a dogfight. One guy running away is not a dogfight,” said Gracie on Monday in an interview with The MMA Show.

However, Gracie doesn’t fully fault Condit for taking the smarter, less aesthetically pleasing route instead of catering to the expectations of others, and actually blames the coaching staff at Greg Jackson’s gym for the gameplan.

“It’s one thing to avoid standing in the pocket, it’s one thing to know how to dodge punches and kicks, and be somewhat elusive and have great defense. It’s another thing to turn your back and run from a fighter. That’s completely different,” said Gracie of Jackson’s approach to fighting. “You shouldn’t be telling your fighter to fight like that. I think it’s a disgrace and a shame. I’ve said this before: I don’t like that camp. I’m not going to take that back.”

The future of both Diaz and Condit appear a bit hazy at the moment, as Diaz said he was retiring after the loss and Condit is likely waiting 9-10 months for Georges St. Pierre to heal up from a knee injury rather than take another fight as his management implied he would prior to his closely-contested win over Diaz.

PHOTO CREDIT – STRIKEFORCE/UFC

Last week it was reported by Condit’s management team that if he was to beat Diaz for the interim title he would likely stay active, defending the belt once before potentially facing GSP. However, Condit’s manager, Malki Kawa, changed his tune on those claims earlier today.

“At this point, (a rematch) is not something we’re looking to do,” said Kawa, in an interview with MMAFighting. “We’re looking for Georges. People forget, Carlos waited a long time to this get fight. I think clearly and decisively, he won the fight. All of the opinions that matter scored Carlos as winner.”

Diaz’s trainer/manager, Cesar Gracie, was a guest today on the MMA Hour, said in response to Kawa’s statements, “Of course they’re not interested in a rematch. They lost the first one.”

There was talk of an immediate rematch between Condit and Diaz taking place based on the bout being scored very closely, though that could have been difficult to work out as Diaz announced his retirement from MMA immediately after the fight.

PHOTO CREDIT – UFC

According to Diaz’s manager and head trainer, Cesar Gracie, the answer is “no”

Gracie, who was careful to speak in hypothetical terms rather than disrespect Condit by assuming Diaz would exit with a victory,

“If we’re fortunate and we win this fight, I would advise Nick to not take another fight before the GSP fight, unless it was maybe at a different weight class, because we wanna wait for (St. Pierre),” Gracie explained in an interview on The MMA Hour.

Diaz has fought at heavier and lighter weights than his current home as a 170 pounder. While far from anything resembling a certainty, if Diaz were to take a swim in a different divisional pool it would likely be as a middleweight given his size.

PHOTO CREDIT – STRIKEFORCE

The contract for EliteXC’s fighters basically states that if EliteXC is unable to fulfill its payment obligations that the fighters can seek to terminate their contract with the company. Upon notifying the company of a possible breach, EliteXC has thirty days to respond. Cesar Gracie is the latest to do so, sending a notice to EliteXC officials last Friday that the company had breached their contract with his fighters.

This news comes via a report by MMA Weekly.

Gracie, however, is already making plans for Nick Diaz’s next fight, which could come as early as New Year’s Eve for the DREAM promotion in Japan. Gracie claims that if Diaz fights in Japan that he doesn’t have to adhere to the thirty day waiting period that EliteXC has to respond to the notice of breach of contract.

“We’re not doing anything wrong if he fights in Japan. As far as him fighting in the U.S., then the 30 day thing (applies),” Gracie told MMA Weekly.

Gracie said that representatives from both DREAM and Sengoku have approached him about using Diaz on their New Year’s shows. DREAM and K-1 are scheduled for a combined event on December 31 while Sengoku’s New Year’s show will take place on January 4. Gracie said that Diaz will be fighting on one of the two shows.

It was a unique experience for me because the Riviera “events center” is essentially a ballroom. I’ve seen MMA in half cages in small rooms in the inner city and at community centers, but there’s nothing like seeing a circle cage in the middle of a ball room.

The results are as follows:

- Buddy Roberts def. Dennis Bacon at 1:06 in round 1 via rear naked choke in a heavyweight fight. Roberts trains at the Lion’s Den with Ken Shamrock. Roberts’ showing was very underwhelming. Roberts got his back early and flattened him out and that was it.

- Ryan Bader defeated Brad Peterson via unanimous decision. Both guys showed each other a lot of respect and there wasn’t a lot of aggression shown during the fight. Bader wins the award for best walk-in music of the night (a cool remix of “March of the Empire).

- Jeff Cox defeated Joe Cronin via TKO at 0:55 of round 3. The official result was announced as a TKO but it sure looked like a KO to me. The fight was slow much of the day but Cox finished big with a sick looking knockout. Cronin had a lot of supporters there and a lot of them tried to rush into the cage to check on him because they were so concerned. I mean, it was a brutal knockout.

- Dennis Davis defeated Reynaldo Duarte via unanimous decision. This was an interesting matchup because Davis trains out of Xtreme Couture and Duarte trains out of ATT. Davis apologized to the fans after the fight for not being more aggressive but said he wanted to be cautious of Duarte’s submission skills. Duarte entered the ring in a Gi and a black belt but the crowd didn’t really get to see his jiu-jitsu in action on this night.

- Eleina Reid defeated Tammie Schneider via TKO at 2:05 of round 2. Reid is a former pro boxer that’s training out of Xtreme Couture. Apparently there weren’t many opportunities for her left in boxing but things have picked up for her since crossing over to MMA. This was her debut and she received a strong reaction from the crowd. Reid hit Schneider with a big knee against the cage and it was all downhill from there. Both ladies weighed-in at 115 lbs. for this fight. It was the first female flyweight fight I had ever seen. Schneider did not look anywhere near ready for prime-time but I was still impressed with Reid. If any of the major promotions start a female flyweight division, Reid will be a player.

CLICK HERE TO READ THE REMAINDER OF THE ARTICLE ON SAM CAPLAN’S PROELITE.COM BLOG