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  - DIAZ CAMP PLANS LEGAL ACTION AGAINST CSAC
Friday, March 28, 2008 - by Damon Martin - MMAWeekly.com
The Elite XC and Strikeforce co-promoted fight card set for this weekend underwent multiple changes this week. None garnered as much fallout as Nick Diaz being pulled from his bout with Jae Suk Lim due to his medicals not being turned in on time, according to California State Athletic Commission executive officer Armando Garcia in a statement to Sherdog.com on Thursday.
EliteXC live events president Gary Shaw claimed in a conversation with Garcia that Diaz was being pulled because of Diaz’s prescription for medicinal marijuana.
Cesar Gracie, Diaz’s lead trainer, spoke to MMAWeekly Radio on Thursday evening about the entire situation that led up to his fighter being pulled from his fight just 72 hours before it was scheduled to take place.
Gracie denied Garcia’s claim that Diaz did not turn in his medicals on time.
“That’s absolutely not true,” said Gracie about the timing of the medicals being received. “Because if he didn’t turn his medicals in, how did (Garcia) know Nick has a cannabis club card? He found out when the medicals were turned in. Nick doesn’t turn in medicals. He goes and gets them done and the lab was turning them in for him.
“There are fighters on this card that did not get their medicals in until today. They got them done last night and turned them in today, and they are fighting.”
According to his trainer, Diaz was extremely prepared for this fight and is obviously disappointed after the ruling was handed down on Wednesday.
“He had made weight, he was looking forward to putting up a really good fight,” stated Gracie. “For some reason, like I said, Armando’s (Garcia) finding every excuse in the book to not let this guy fight. It’s ridiculous.”
The entire situation may have to come to a head in a courtroom because at this late date there is no way Diaz can still compete on Saturday’s card and Gracie is adamant about their position in this battle.
“That’s exactly what we’re going to move forward with is legal action after this,” Gracie said. “We’re going to go ahead and get our lawyers and we’re going to sit down and go forward with the proceedings. This is just discrimination, you can’t do that.
“Armando Garcia is here to help fighters, not to hinder them. He’s here to make sure fighters are safe, make sure the rules are being followed, not to legislate from where he’s at, make laws, that’s not his thing. It’s to enforce the laws that are made and to make sure everything happens in a fair manner. And when the fighters do it fairly, it doesn’t matter what my opinion, or his opinion, or anyone else’s opinion is, California states that it’s legal to have a cannabis club card, so that’s just the way it is.”
Regardless of the legalized marijuana issue, Gracie also says that Diaz had every intention of being tested and coming back clean.
“He never took a urine test. We wanted him to take a urine test,” he said. “We offered for him to take a urine test to show that he was going to be negative. He was not smoking, so he would be negative for this fight … they never gave him that opportunity.”
For now, Gracie will focus on Gilbert Melendez, who will be defending his Strikeforce lightweight championship on Saturday night against Gabe Lemley.
Attempts to reach Garcia for comment went unreturned at the time of publication.
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