Nick Diaz’s former coach, Jose Garcia of NDA Athletic Recovery, made some interesting allegations against Cesar Gracie, Diaz’s longtime trainer and manager.
According to Garcia, Gracie is trying to undermine Diaz’s preparation for his upcoming bout against Vicente Luque at UFC Abu Dhabi on August 3rd. “Nick rekindles his communication with Cesar just to be on good terms before leaving for Florida to train and isolate himself from the COVID restriction that was in California,” Garcia told BJPENN. “He gets in amazing shape and then Cesar sees the opportunity to slide in and capitalize off of Nick’s last possible fight vs Robbie.”
Garcia claims that Gracie manipulated the situation to void Diaz’s existing contract for the Robbie Lawler fight, in order to secure the contract for himself. “Cesar had nothing to do with getting this fight made, Cesar was under the impression that Nick was still retired. Once he saw that Nick was active, Cesar manipulated his way into Nick’s life so that he could benefit from voiding the current contract so that he could make his own.”
Furthermore, Garcia alleges that Gracie forced Diaz to proceed with the Lawler fight, even though Diaz was in poor physical and mental condition. “Nick gets out of shape in California under Cesar’s watch and instead of pulling him out of the fight, Gracie forces Nick to move forward with it. Nick walked into that fight in bad physical and mental shape.”
Now, with Diaz’s upcoming fight in Abu Dhabi, Garcia claims Gracie is attempting to dissuade Diaz from competing. “Cesar is back. Due to the fact that Cesar is scared to fly and has no control over Nick’s contract with the UFC he is trying to discourage Nick from fighting in Abu Dhabi which once again is causing Nick to be mentally stressed instead of focusing on his fight.”
It remains to be seen whether these allegations will have any impact on Diaz’s preparations for his fight against Luque. But the tension between Diaz and his former coach appears to be escalating as the bout approaches.
