Wednesday night, Cesar Gracie spoke with BJPenn.com Radio on a number of hot MMA topics.  Gracie is the long-time coach of several of the sport’s top fighters, a team that has gained notoriety for its toughness, its tight-knit camaraderie, and its intense training.  Three of Gracie’s high-profile athletes have upcoming fights: Nick Diaz will face UFC welterweight champ, Georges St. Pierre, next week; and in April, younger brother Nate Diaz will fight Josh Thomson under the main event featuring Gracie fighter, Gilbert Melendez, challenging the UFC lightweight belt of Benson Henderson.

Outside of UFC news, Gracie also talked about the recent Lloyd Irvin scandals and the impact this has on the jiu jitsu world.  He also talked about his own gym, which he is beginning to expand to new territories while maintaining its integrity and devotion to the sport.  Never being one to hold his mind, Cesar Gracie delivers some straight answers in this interview.

With the Nick Diaz-GSP fight only one week away, much of the MMA world’s attention has turned toward the fighter from Stockton.  With his reputation for disregarding media obligations from the UFC, a lot of drama has been added to the usual pre-fight hype with recent assertions from Dana White that Diaz had missed dates to film the Countdown show.

“When I heard that I was thinking, ‘wait a minute, Nick finished that shoot already,’” said Gracie.  “And it came out great.  The guys texted me how great of a job Nick did.  So I didn’t really know what Dana was talking about.  I do know the first day or two, there was a, you know, Nick has a schedule going and he not going to stop his schedule for media; he just doesn’t work that way.  You have to do it on his terms, pretty much.  But it was in the same time frame, a couple days, and it came out great.”

On Dana White’s estimate that Diaz had cost the UFC $50,000, Cesar Gracie expressed bewilderment.  “No way, it’s impossible.  The guys that were doing the shoot, the main guy lives in Sacramento, which the drive to Lodi is 45 minutes away.  If they’re paying the camera guys that much, they should pay the fighters more.  Who the hell gets $50,000 for a couple days?  Like I said though, it’s a non-issue.  Nick has met his obligations.  I mean he went to Montreal!  Nick is training very hard and we’re trying to keep the distractions to a minimum.”

We have more from Cesar so stay tuned for part two of this interview or just check out the full audio below:

comments