MMAConvert.com

These days, if Nick Diaz is involved in something, something is bound to go wrong. Nick Diaz, perhaps trying to make up for lost time after he was barred from competing at the EliteXC/Strikeforce card on March 29 by the CSAC, booked two fights in a little over a month’s time. Diaz was recently announced to fight on the DREAM.3 card on May 11 in a welterweight title contender match, while already having a fight booked for EliteXC on June 14 in Hawaii. Josh Gross is reporting that EliteXC President Gary Shaw has decided a May 11 appearance in Japan is too close to EliteXC’s June 14 event, and is forcing Diaz to withdraw from the DREAM bout.

Diaz’s manager and trainer, Cesar Gracie, posted via his website, GracieFighter.com, that Shaw only learned of the conflict this past weekend through the internet. He claims DREAM representatives were supposed to inform EliteXC of his DREAM bout, but apparently failed to do so.
Gracie tell SI.com:

“We put these two organizations in contact with each other. They were supposed to figure it out but there was some miscommunication somewhere.”

It’s also interesting to note that Showtime contracts stipulate that a fighter has a 30-day fight restriction period prior to fighting on a televised card, however the time difference between these two fights is 35 days. The obvious question is whether Nick Diaz has a legal right to still compete at DREAM, and if so, will he challenge Shaw’s ruling for his opportunity to fight in Japan?

Granted, there may be some other provision in his EliteXC contract that we don’t know about, preventing him from legally fighting on May 11, but if not EliteXC and Showtime should honor the 30-day period and let him fight and change their contracts to reflect a restriction period they’re willing to honor going forward.

[UPDATE] – MMAWeekly.com is reporting EliteXC’s contract with its fighters prevent them from fighting for another organization 45 days prior to a scheduled bout on an EliteXC card.