Nick Diaz Off EliteXC Card
by Robert Sargent
Late last night, California State Athletic Commission executive officer Armando Garcia pulled Nick Diaz from this Saturday's EliteXC/Strikeforce card for supposedly failing to turn in his medical information in a timely manner.
Diaz will also miss out on the $50,000 purse that he was scheduled to be paid for his main card fight with Jae Suk Lim at the event.
Conflicting reports have created controversy around the decision, with Garcia stating that Diaz did not file his medical information until Wednesday, while Diaz and EliteXC promoter Gary Shaw maintain that the paperwork was filed weeks ago.
The issue at hand is Diaz's prescription for medicinal marijuana, which is legal in California by way of the Compassionate Use Act of 1996. Diaz suffers from Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD) and, according to manager Cesar Gracie, uses marijuana to help him sleep and focus. Diaz possesses a medicinal marijuana card.
"Nick is a naturalist by heart," Gracie said. "He thinks Ritalin is an amphetamine. He thinks that's really bad for you. People with ADD are kind of hyper, so he has trouble sleeping. He got the medical marijuana card and he takes his pot to go to sleep and be more focused. It's completely legal in California. Voters voted it in. The commission is actually supposed to obey that, so this will probably open up a legal case. If it was something small, okay...whatever, but if they're not going to allow him to test clean, that doesn't make sense. That's overstepping their boundaries."
In an effort to renew his licence to fight in California, Diaz underwent numerous tests on March 10th in the Los Angeles offices of Dr. Richard Gluckman, and duly noted his medicinal marijuana use when completing the required paperwork. He included the information in case a positive test for marijuana arose in the future, as it did after his victory over Takanori Gomi at PRIDE 33, which was later overturned after the positive marijuana test.
Garcia insists that he did not learn of Diaz's medicinal marijuana use until Wednesday, nearly two-and-a-half weeks later, despite the fact that the paperwork had been completed on the 10th. Shaw maintains that this was not the fault of Diaz or EliteXC, but rather of the offices of Dr. Gluckman.
"He does what you ask [of] him, and you punish him?" asked Shaw. "It's like if you have a Ferrari and a police officer gives you a speeding ticket before you [even] turn the key. It wasn't about lateness, because I say that you cannot pull him off [of the event card] if your own doctor sent [the paperwork] in. We have guys getting licensed today, so you know it's an outright lie."
Garcia refused to comment on Shaw's statements.
Diaz will next compete in Hawaii on June 14th for EliteXC, while Drew Fickett, who was originally scheduled to take on a now-injured Jake Shields, will face Lim on Saturday.
While Diaz is very brash and has made his share of enemies in mixed martial arts, the stripping of his win over Takanori Gomi was severe enough as it was, and further heavy-handed actions from the CSAC seem unwarranted, to say the least. The circumstances behind Diaz's removal from this Saturday's card are highly questionable, at best.
