Source: Nick Diaz denied spot on Strikeforce's June 26 card due to brawl (Updated)
by Steven Marrocco and Dann Stupp on May 01, 2010 at 1:45 pm ET
A post-fight melee that followed an April 17 Strikeforce event cost Jason "Mayhem" Miller a headlining spot next month at "Strikeforce: Los Angeles," and Strikeforce welterweight champ Nick Diaz appears to have suffered a similar fate.
A source close to Diaz told MMAjunkie.com (
www.mmajunkie.com) that the fighter was told his request to compete on Strikeforce's June 26 fight card in San Jose, Calif., also was turned down because of his role in the televised brawl.
Diaz was one of multiple Cesar Gracie team members involved in a post-"Strikeforce: Nashville" scuffle that broke out when preliminary-card fighter Miller interrupted main-event winner Jake Shields during a post-fight speech.
Miller entered the cage to campaign for a rematch of their November meeting, when Shields won a lopsided unanimous decision to earn Strikeforce's then-vacated middleweight belt.
When Shields shoved Miller, teammates such as Nick Diaz and Gilbert Melendez continued the shoving. Some of the group members eventually wrestled Miller to the mat, and punches and kicks were thrown until security and commission officials broke up the brawl. The entire episode aired live on CBS as part of Strikeforce's second nationally televised event, and it's been widely condemned by the MMA industry.
Strikeforce CEO Scott Coker today told MMAjunkie.com neither Diaz nor anyone else involved in the brawl had been targeted for the organization's June shows.
"No one in that was involved with that situation (in Nashville) was scheduled to fight in June," he said. "But if they were ... until the Tennessee Athletic Commission has the hearing and [gives] out suspensions and fines, we're going to wait and support [the commission]."
As MMAjunkie.com reported soon after the show, the Tennessee Athletic Commission executive director Jeffrey Mullen confirmed the commission had opened a formal investigation into the situation. Commission officials are expected to penalize some of the fighters involved in the event, including Diaz and Miller, though Mullen said the process could take weeks or months to finish. (Coker said he expects it to take 30-45 days.)
Even before Miller's victory over Tim Stout at the April show, Coker talked of a possible June 16 headliner between "Mayhem" and fellow middleweight Robbie Lawler. However, earlier this week, the executive instead replaced Miller with former champ Renato "Babalu" Sobral and told MMAjunkie.com that "Mayhem" now is unlikely to compete on the card because of his role in the brawl.
Ten days after that Showtime-televised event, which coincides with the Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3), Strikeforce is expected to return to its home in San Jose for another major Showtime-televised event. Diaz hoped to secure a spot on the show, which could be headlined by Fedor Emelianenko vs. Fabricio Werdum. However, as with Miller, Strikeforce officials apparently will sideline Diaz until the Tennessee commission announces its findings.
Although he won't be a part of the June 26 Strikeforce card, Diaz still is scheduled to fight four weeks earlier at DREAM.14, which takes place outside of U.S. commissions' jurisdiction in Japan. Diaz is scheduled to fight Hayato Sakurai in a non-title fight at the May 29 event.
For more on the "Strikeforce: Fedor vs. Werdum" event, stay tuned to the MMA Rumors section of the site.
