And during a conference call to hype up his upcoming Jan. 29 title defense against Evangelista "Cyborg" Santos, Diaz made his feelings very clear on the matter, saying that given the weight disparity, it's not a fight he'll agree to unless the cash is right.
The conference call followed the pattern of a typical Diaz fight: jab, jab, feel out the spacing, and then, when he was properly warmed up, he let it rip.
"I'd be happy to move up," he said. "I'd just like to be paid for it, you now. I don't like how people try to say that I didn't accept the fight with Miller because I was too small. I never said anything about that. I said, If I'm going to go off-track, it's going to screw with my season, screw with my whole year, screw with my capabilities fighting at 170 pounds. So If I'm going to do that, I would like to get paid in full. I'd like to have a reason for doing that. It's not just doing it at everyone else's convenience. I would like to get paid something extra. Double, triple, something crazy for me to do that, to move up in weight and fight at that weight.
"Moving up or moving down, I'd rather move down before I moved up," he continued. "If you want me to move to a different class, let me move down if you're not going to pay me more money for it. I might as well be moving down. That's probably better. I'll move up, but can I get paid for it? People see something great. Offer me a fight at 185, offer me a big money fight and I'll make it happen. But I'm not just doing it for free when I make the same money at 170 pounds. It's more work. Twice as much work. I never would've signed for that fight with Miller. They were talking about making me move weight. I said, 'Tell his ass to get in f---ing shape and make weight like I do.' It's f---ing hard enough for me to make 170 pounds. He acts like he wouldn't be able to do it. He doesn't want to work hard like me. That's the problem. So he could work his ass off and make 170 pounds, 175 pounds. Or somebody can pay me a couple f---ing million dollars and I'll move up to 185 pounds and I'll fight him."
The Strikeforce welterweight champion made it clear it's an issue of money over bad blood, despite the fact that he recently signed a contract extension with the San Jose, California-based promotion.
"That motherf---r doesn't want to fight me," he said. "Talking about, 'he wants to fight me' every chance he gets. He's got control of the media. I'll fight at any weight. I'll fight at 185 pounds. I'd like to get paid. Pacquiao's making $40 f---ing million, GSP's making a couple millions dollars. And I'm over here driving a Honda because my s---'s breaking down?"
Diaz also took issue with world fighter rankings, telling the story of when he cornered a fighter who had only fought twice before as he took on the UFC welterweight Josh Koscheck.
The fighter, likely former Team Cesar Gracie member Chris Sanford, who was actually 4-0 at the time, was knocked out in the first round by Koscheck (who was 2-0 and making his UFC debut after appearing on the Ultimate Fighter). Diaz, though, sees that as an example of selective matchmaking that helped several UFC stars build up strong records, and helps hoodwink the media and public into believing they are better than they actually are.
"I never had fights like that," he said. "So when you bring up guys like that to me and tell me they're the best fighters in the world, it's a f---ing joke. It's a joke to me. He may be a good fighter now, but these guys that are ranked up there, I was here first. That's fine, but lets fight then, you know? Make it happen."
Diaz, who said his dream fights would be against Anderson Silva or Georges St. Pierre, was asked why he continues to call out fighters that it's unlikely he'll ever face while he's under contract to a rival promotion.
"Why wouldn't I get this fight?" he said. "Why are you saying it's unavailable? Because we fight for different companies? I think there's enough money involved that they can organize that sort of thing."
In the meantime, he'll have to settle for Santos, an 18-13 brawler who won his divisional debut by TKO over Marius Zaromskis in December.
"I think this is the best opponent for right now that I'd agree to," he said. "I want to fight GSP. But I think my partner [teammate Jake Shields] will take him out regardless."
Source: mmafighting.com
The rivalry between Diaz and Miller exploded last April, when the two were among the participants in a post-fight brawl following Jake Shields' championship win over Dan Henderson.
On Wednesday's edition of The MMA Hour, Diaz's manager and trainer Cesar Gracie explained why the matchup has yet to happen.
According to Gracie, Strikeforce ultimately decided that Diaz-Cyborg was the company's direction, although company president Scott Coker at one time believed that Miller-Diaz would happen.
"Part of me was disappointed because I wanted Nick to shut him up," Gracie said. "That's about it, to beat him up. But the other part, I kind of realized why that fight can't happen. You can't give a guy a fight just because he talks a lot. It sets a precedent."
Strikeforce did look into the possibility of putting the feuding duo in the cage, but the bout may have been undone by the weight differential between the pair. Gracie said Diaz is lighter than usual because he's been competing in triathlons, and would not go all the way to the middleweight division's 185-pound weight class.
According to him, Miller only wanted to meet him at 183.
"You don't ask the champion to move up a weight class just because you want to fight him. That's stupid," he said. "If that happened in the UFC, Dana White would shut people up. It'd be the equivalent of Chris Leben calling out Georges St. Pierre and saying, 'I don't like you. You have to fight me at 185.' Dana would ridicule that. Everybody would ridicule that. I don't know how this thing got legs. It's stupid."
Diaz recently signed an extension with Strikeforce. Though Gracie could not discuss the exact terms, he said reports the contract was for a three-year deal were inaccurate.
He confirmed that the UFC was interested in Diaz but noted that the decision was ultimately made to stay with Strikeforce because Diaz's brother Nate and his main training partner Jake Shields also fight in the UFC's welterweight class.
Diaz, however, is not closing the door on a return to the UFC (he fought 10 times for the promotion between 2003-2006, going 6-4).
"There's definitely scenarios where I could see Nick back in the UFC," he said. "Right now though, we've got a very good contract with Strikeforce. They treat Nick very well. The terms of the contract are favorable, and as a manager, I'm happy with the contract."
In April, Gracie will take Shields into battle against the aforementioned St. Pierre, who is viewed by most as a Greg Jackson-trained fighter. Gracie, however, doesn't see it that way, referring to Shields and GSP as "two Gracie-trained fighters fighting each other."
Interestingly, he disagrees with people who call the noted trainer Jackson a great coach, or who refer to him as a coach at all.
Gracie said he believes Jackson often receives too much credit for his fighters' successes. In the case of St. Pierre, he noted, technical coaches like Firas Zahabi, Phil Nurse, John Danaher and Renzo Gracie are the ones handling the details that are often the difference between winning and losing.
"He's more of a coordinator where he puts things in perspective," he said. "And he's great at what he does. Training's at this time, let's go run the mountain or something. Let's go train with this guy. He's more of a motivational speaker possibly, but as a true sense of the word 'coach,' he's not on the same page as great coaches of the world. He's not."
Gracie said if someone were to credit him on Nick Diaz's striking progress, for example, he would have to credit Diaz's striking coach rather than accept the praise himself.
"I've got nothing against Greg Jackson in particular," he said. "It's just that we're talking about him. There's a lot of guys like that. I'm sure he's a great guy and everything. But the guys from American Top Team in Florida, it's like, you don't have Dan Lambert doing that. He doesn't get in the limelight and he's great, he does everything. He sets it all up, and he's done an incredible job. You never see him pretending he did something he didn't do. The great coaches are in the background."
Gracie, himself a black belt in Brazilian jiu-jitsu, also trains Strikeforce lightweight champ Gilbert Melendez.
Asked about another student, the former WWE wrestler Dave Batista, who was rumored to one day be fighting in a Strikeforce cage, Gracie said it's still a possibility.
"I really hope to see him in Strikeforce," he said. "Strikeforce said they want him. They're doing so many things at once that they're a little slow sometimes on doing stuff. But he's become a friend and that would be great.
"He's not going to beat Fedor," he continued. "Everybody has what it takes. Everybody can fight and push yourself. This is a sport, like anything else. He's not going to be world champ, probably, because he's older. But If Herschel Walker can have a shot, why can't Batista?"
Source: mmafighting.com
If the report holds true, this will be the third time the 185-pounders have collided. A little-known Kennedy served up a unanimous decision upset special over “Mayhem” at “Extreme Challenge 50″ back in 2003. However, Miller knotted up the score just four years later with a decision victory of his own.
Kennedy fights for the first time since losing his interim title scrap to Ronald “Jacare” Souza. Prior to the August defeat, the former IFL athlete won four consecutive fights, including submission victories over Nick Thompson, Zak Cummings and Trevor Prangley.
Miller, on the other hand, has had his sights set on bitter rival and welterweight champion Nick Diaz for quite some time. Unfortunately, both sides claimed the other was “scared, homie” and couldn’t agree upon a suitable catchweight to settle their differences. Diaz will now defend his title against Evangelista “Cyborg” Santos at the end of this month.
Mayhem has quietly compiled a 7-2 (1 NC) record over the past four years. The controversial veteran was most recently seen submitting Japanese legend Kazushi Sakuraba at Dream.16.
A light heavyweight title bout between champion Rafael “Feijao” Cavalcante and Dan Henderson is expected to headline the Columbus show.
