Cesar Gracie with his black belt Nick Diaz / Photo: Strikeforce
UFC welterweight Nick Diaz everybody knows. He’s that skillful fighter with a scowl permanently stamped on his face with no set date for his return to the octagon, for having tested positive for marijuana. Now Bráulio Estima, a teacher at Gracie Barra and the ADCC 2011 superchampion, is a major name in the Jiu-Jitsu world. As the gang at MiddleEasy.com have already suggested, if Carcará were a Playstation character, Sony would have to create new buttons for the console, so diverse is the array of moves at his disposal.
And it was precisely MiddleEasy reporter LayzieTheSavate who caught up with Diaz’s coach and master, Cesar Gracie, to pick his brains about the under-180 lb supermatch on the coming 12th of May at the inaugural World Jiu-Jitsu Expo in Long Beach.
We sorted some of the highlights from the conversation with Cesar Gracie.
NICK DIAZ’S CHANCES AGAINST BRÁULIO ESTIMA
“I feel Nick is being underestimated by the fans. He’s not a pugilist who learned Jiu-Jitsu; he’s a Jiu-Jitsu fighter who learned boxing. He knows plenty about Jiu-Jitsu, an art he’s been doing since he was young, and can stand his own. I feel it will be a great fight. Bráulio Estima is the best there is right now. And he’s a cool guy, trains with my cousin Roger, and despite the distance between us we all come from the same roots, the same team, the same origins. I have a lot of respect for those guys.
NEGOTIATIONS WITH JIU-JITSU EXPO
“Nick really wanted to take part in the tournament at the expo, and the promoters of the fair thought it would be cool if he were in a superfight. Nick said he’d be down to face anyone; he just wanted to test himself against the best. First it was going to be in the gi, then they came up with the opponent, so they called asking if it could be under No-Gi Jiu-Jitsu rules. Nick initially wanted to test himself in the gi, but he wasn’t opposed to it at all. Even while under suspension from the athletic commission, he’s been training MMA every day and is in shape.
WHAT THE OUTCOME WILL MEAN TO NICK DIAZ
“If he loses, he loses. Nick’s not worried about it. Now I feel that if he wins it will be huge, historic. Though he does have top-notch Jiu-Jitsu, Nick does other things on a day-to-day basis; he’s an MMA fighter and trains other aspects of fighting and doesn’t dedicate his time to Jiu-Jitsu the way Bráulio does. But none of that scares him. If Nick wins, it will be historic; it would be like that hockey team that in 1984 beat the Russian professionals.”
What do you think, gentle reader, will Bráulio get the finish? Will the UFC star surprise and win? What’s your prediction for the coming 12th?
