Cesar Gracie reacts to Nick Diaz’s loss and possible retirement | UFC News

During a Monday interview with the folks at The MMA Hour, Diaz’s manager Cesar Gracie stated that the demands of managing have him considering pulling out of that responsibility, as long as he can find capable hands to guide the careers of his fighters.

Gracie, who is a longtime trainer/manager/father figure type for Diaz, isn’t interested in completely splitting ways with Nick. He’d still like to coach him in the gym, but when asked if he wanted to keep managing Nick and his younger brother Nate, Cesar hesitated to say yes.

“I’m going to have a discussion, especially with Nick. I need to make sure we’re on the same page with everything. Sometimes, the stress of doing something is a little bit crazy, and I do the best I can but it’s kind of stressful. Then I have to ask, is this worth it to even do this? Maybe if there was somebody who could do this job that Nick or Nate — if they wanted to go — that they could really trust, that might be a good thing. But again, that’s a personal thing between us.”

The former Strikeforce champion, Nick Diaz, ultimately came up short in his bid to dethrone longtime UFC welterweight champ Georges St. Pierre this weekend. After losing by way of judges decision, Nick voiced the possibility of walking away from the sport of MMA, though he did qualify that remark by noting a couple of big fights could sway him to stay.

Gracie said due to the emotion of the moment, he wouldn’t put too much stock in Diaz’s proclamation of retirement. He did, however, agree with Diaz’s thoughts on the way he should be matched up in the future.

“I kind of understand his mentality, a lot of times with the UFC, they say, you’ve got to fight this kid, he’s coming up, he’s 2-0 in the UFC. There’s absolutely no motivation to do stuff like that. I think with Nick, that’s what he’s thinking. If he has to fight some of these young guys who really haven’t put their time into the UFC and in MMA in general, it’s just not a motivational thing for you. I’d rather see him something like Wanderlei Silva. Big fights. Wanderlei could lose 10 fights in a row, and they’re going to put him in a big fight. That’s how they feel about Wanderlei. And Vitor Belfort. Vitor would win a fight and he’s fighting for the title next. The respect level given to these guys that have been doing this for so many years and put on so many fights. Nick, he’s not as old as those guys, but he wants that kind of respect, and he wants big fights.”

On Saturday, instead of working Diaz’s corner, Gracie sat in the first row, watching as a spectator. Due to a severe cold, Cesar was forced to miss the ‘fighter’s meetings’, therefore making him ineligible to work in Diaz’s corner. Cesar’s cousin, Kron Gracie, instead cornered the Stockton Slugger. Here is what Cesar had to say of Nick’s performance:

“I thought he did good, there was some stuff he could have done better to win that fight. It’s almost like with him he has to prove something. The last couple rounds, he was trying to show he could stop a takedown. I think what he thought was, ‘This guy’s not hitting me hard,’ but it doesn’t look good for the judges. So I think he could’ve stepped it up a little bit more in the later rounds and thrown more punches to St-Pierre’s face and body. And have Nick in a lower stance so he wouldn’t get taken down while he was throwing punches. Just been more active because it looked like GSP was slowing down himself. And I thought if Nick really pushed it, he might be able to get a TKO or something.”

Gracie, also attempted to clear up some of Diaz’s post-fight comments regarding never having paid taxes to the IRS, saying he knows for fact that Diaz has made hundreds of thousands of dollars in tax payments over the years.

He finished by suggesting that Nick should look at some of the positives from this fight, that even though he lost a fight, he’s still a success story to many.

“Let’s keep on the positive, it’s easy to get negative on a lot of stuff, but I believe we need to be more thankful in life. That’s how I feel about it. I think with Nick, he’s learning. He got a late start with learning things in life but that’s what I like to push him to. It’s like, Hey, man, you’re still young. You got the future in front of you. You can fight big fights, you can make money. Why don’t you get married, have kids? Do whatever, man. Life is good.”