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Who knows if Strikeforce will give Jose Canseco the Herschel Walker fight he’s been asking for (still a few conflicting reports on Strikeforce’s interest level), but Canseco sure is proceeding on with training at Cesar Gracie’s like it’s already been booked. Is Nick Diaz showing Canseco the ropes not the oddest sight you’ve ever seen?

So it looks like Jose Canseco is hell-bent on making this fight with Herschel Walker happen. Unlike his preview MMA fight against Hong Man Choi, he actually intends to train for this one, and Cesar Gracie has offered to facilitate. Yesterday was his first day as evidenced by the above photo with the Diaz brothers. Nick just looks so amused, doesn’t he? No word yet on what Strikeforce is thinking at this point, but they’re apparently at least willing to sit down and hear Canseco out. I still don’t like it, but if Canseco is actually willing to dedicate himself to a real training camp I suppose it wouldn’t be the worst thing in the world.

Now if they want to book Canseco against Don Frye then I am all about it. The verbal beating Frye would dish out would be epic. The physical one probably wouldn’t be too far behind. Just throwing that out there if this is what you want to do, Strikeforce.

HT: BE

Update: Strikeforce says they are not meeting with Jose Canseco nor entertaining the idea of matching him up with Herschel Walker.

Update 2: Okay, so Strikeforce has met with Jose Canseco though it’s unclear what came out of it.

Strikeforce CEO Scott Coker and Canseco gathered today in a San Jose, Calif.-area restaurant along with esteemed trainer Cesar Gracie to discuss the possibility of the former baseball star fighting for Strikeforce, according to Gracie, who spoke with MMAjunkie.com (www.mmajunkie.com) Friday before the group met.

“Jose says baseball’s better than football, Gracie jiu-jitsu is better than AKA (American Kickboxing Academy) and he’s better than Herschel (Walker),” Gracie said. “Three strikes and you’re out.

“People will be amazed what kind of shape this guy is in. He throws a head kick like Cung Le.”

Of course he does.

I’ll say this, I don’t think Strikeforce booking Canseco vs. Walker would “hurt the sport” — at this point only something like a death in the cage on a major broadcast would — but I do think it would damage Strikeforce’s credibility. If I were Coker, I would steer clear. It’s just not worth it.

Marijuana may keep screwing up Nick Diaz’s career, but it doesn’t look like he has any plans to give it up.

Instead, his trainer, Cesar Gracie,  approached CSAC Assistant Executive Officer Bill Douglas about adopting a “Theraputic Usage Exemption” program as outlined by the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) which would allow Nick to continue smoking weed without being penalized when he’s out of competition. Gracie argued that Nick does in fact need the pot for medicinal purposes.

“He does need (marijuana),” said Gracie. “He has ADHD and he’s had a prescription for Ritalin since he was a kid. He doesn’t want to take that. That’s worse than pot.”

Douglas was actually open to the idea.

Douglas called the meeting “extremely positive.”

“We don’t have a TUE program in California yet, not to say we won’t,” Douglas told Sherdog.com Monday. “I pledged to have the CSAC staff work with Gracie and his reps, because putting a TUE program together to present to the commission will take time and effort, as well as feedback from many parties. We can put the plan together, but ultimately the commission has to vote for it.”

Douglas said the first step will be to secure a date to present the idea to the commission board, but noted that if the commission is receptive, the entire process of incorporating the system could take up to a year.

Until then, Nick will have to abide by the current rules, which Gracie assured he would. He’ll be allowed to take the drug test he missed in a few weeks to get re-licensed, but it sounds like he may not need it just yet. His camp is currently in talks with DREAM to have Nick fight in Japan in October, possibly against Hayato “Mach” Sakurai. Strikeforce seems fine with it as long as Nick is ready to fight for them in November or December.

Image via Showtime Sports

Strikeforce “Carano vs Cyborg” has just been one those cards where pretty much anything and everything that can go wrong has. It’s been plagued with injuries, replacements and cancellations. And it may not be over.

Nick Diaz, a self-proclaimed expert at beating drug tests, failed to show up last Friday to take the one he needs to get licensed by the CSAC, and now the title fight between him and Jay Hieron is in jeopardy. It’s not really clear why Diaz didn’t show up last week—his camp says it was rescheduled for Monday (today), the CSAC of course disputes—but one thing has been made perfectly clear. Diaz must take the test today.

“[The test] has to be in the lab today by 5 pm to get the processing started because usually we’re looking at about a 72 hour process time, and then the extra day for results,” explained [CSAC Assistant Executive Officer Bill] Douglas. “So if they get it in today there’s a chance it could be finished on Thursday, and we’ll have a report in our hands by Friday. Doing the test tomorrow is not going to do any good because the lab won’t process anything during the weekend and we wouldn’t have anything in our hands to license the bout until Monday. It has to be in by 5 pm today”

The kicker is even if he takes it today, that doesn’t necessarily guarantee he’ll be able to fight. If CSAC has the results in their hands by the weigh-ins on Friday and he passes, he’s good, but there’s a chance the report won’t be completed in time for weigh-ins in which case he won’t get licensed and he’s off the card.

Leave it to Nick to keep things interesting as the card comes down to the wire. Never a dull moment.

Image via Showtime Sports

Update: Still no definitive answers on the Diaz situation, but considering Bill Douglas said, “To say this bout is on ‘life support’ is the understatement of the year,” it’s not looking good.

Scott Coker confirmed on the Strikeforce conference call today that the bout is in jeopardy. Basically, Nick has until 3PM PT to get to LA and take the test. Coker commented that he’s “hoping Nick will make the right decision,” so it doesn’t sound like there’s a lot of confidence coming out of the Strikeforce camp. Furthermore, Strikeforce has submitted Jesse Taylor’s name for approval to the CSAC as a replacement for Nick in case he doesn’t licensed.

No official statement from the Diaz camp yet, however Bill Douglas is giving the CSAC’s side of the story. According to him, it sounds like Nick was originally under the impression he either didn’t have to take the test or the results didn’t matter. Apparently, he had made some kind of “deal” regarding his California medical marijuana license with former CSAC head Armando Garcia.

“Well they wanted a clarification on a legal opinion about medicinal marijuana in California because of the deal that was allegedly made between Nick Diaz and Armando Garcia. And I’m sitting here thinking, well Armando hasn’t been here since November. Is that really the policies of a person that we want to emulate at this point in time. So lets disregard that but Cesar asked for a legal opinion and at that point I’m obligated to give it to him. I went back to the department’s legal team, and what they clarified was that the passionate use act in California will protect people from criminal prosecution for the use of medicinal marijuana, but it does not protect them from administrative action against a license. So there is no criminal actions here against Mr. Diaz, it’s a licensing action that still falls in line with our rule 303 prohibiting use of a banned substance, and at this time in regards to athletic competition marijuana is still considered banned. So that’s what we came back to Cesar with.”

I don’t want to jump to conclusions, but it’s starting to sound like whether Nick would pass the test is as big of an if as whether or not he actually shows up to take it. For the record, it sounds like the CSAC has gone above and beyond their obligations giving Nick every possible opportunity to take the test.

Update 2: It’s official, Nick Diaz will not be licensed by the CSAC, and Jesse Taylor will replace him in a three round non-title fight. Nick’s manager/trainer, Cesar Gracie, confirmed the Douglas’ story about the deal they had with Armando Garcia. Their argument is the informal agreement with Garcia precluded random drug testing, and the policy changed without notification.

On Monday, Diaz’s manager, Cesar Gracie, said his fighter had an informal agreement with former CSAC executive officer Armando Garcia that precluded random drug testing. Diaz, a resident of Stockton, Calif., currently holds a medical marijuana license under the state’s Compassionate Use Act of 1996 and Medical Marijuana Program Act. Garcia departed the agency last November.

“They changed it without any notification,” said Gracie. “No one had any time. The old guys were doing things based off of California law, and I knew California law didn’t change. He’s licensed… it’s legal. They’re own legal team came out with a ruling that said (compassionate use was allowed). Then all of a sudden they’re saying we’re doing drug tests, and cannabis is included, it’s not just performance enhancers. To flush it out of his system, it takes 10 days, and we don’t have that.”

“He fights every two months,” said Gracie. “It’s too bad for Jay Hieron, but what can you do? If you take the test, what’s going to happen? What’s going to happen is he’s gonna not get licensed in California for over a year and not fight this fight. If you don’t take this test, you don’t fight this fight, and you fight next month, because you have time to flush it out of your system.”

So I guess no one in the Diaz camp reads the internet or talks to anyone in MMA for that matter. Some guy named Josh Barnett failed the CSAC’s first random drug a couple weeks ago. That probably would have been a good time to look into what this random drug testing was all about and how it might affect Nick.

Image courtesy of Sherdog.com

Nick Diaz’s first fight for Strikeforce will come against MMA legend Frank Shamrock. While this news may come as a bit of a shock to some, I’m not surprised considering the bad blood between Diaz’s trainer, Cesar Gracie, and Frank Shamrock.