Cesar Gracie is a veteran BJJ black belt and has long been the coach for both Diaz brothers, and he’s just now decided to give his opinion on the upcoming fight between Nate Diaz and Khamzat Chimaev. The pair will be meeting in the octagon for a five-round fight that will headline UFC 279 on September 10th in Las Vegas, Nevada. It will no doubt be an interesting clash as Diaz will have been fighting for over two decades when the pair cross paths, and has been one of the most popular figures in the UFC for quite some time. Chimaev on the other hand is relatively new in the sport but has been making waves after dominating every single opponent that the UFC has put in front of him across two different weightclasses.
Diaz is a talented boxer and third-degree BJJ black belt, so is more than capable of presenting a challenge to Chimaev no matter where the fight takes place. Chimaev however is an experienced wrestler who has been able to use his grappling ability to dictate where his fights take place, and land crushing blows from start to finish as a result.
Cesar Gracie revealed his thoughts on the fight between Nate Diaz and Khamzat Chimaev in a recent interview with Submission Radio:
“He’s putting the pressure on himself to finish this fight pretty quick, and if he comes out hard like that, I think that’ll work into Nate’s favor, to be honest with you. I think Nate has to bring him into deep water. Obviously, gotta be in shape to do that. Nate’s always in shape. Standing up, I give the edge to Nate. On the ground, I think Nate’s a better grappler. But you’re fighting a younger guy that’s strong. It’s definitely a tough fight, but there’s ways to win this fight.”
Cesar Gracie also gave his thoughts on the fact that this fight against Khamzat Chimaev is actually the final fight of the contract that his student Nate Diaz currently holds with the UFC:
“This is an interesting fight for sure. I can tell you it wasn’t on my list. I was trying to have him fight (Michael) Chandler, actually, because Chandler wanted to come up in weight and I said, ‘Man, this is an exciting guy. Look, he’s going to go for it. Nate’s an exciting fighter, let’s have this fight happen.’ Nate wanted to fight (Dustin) Poirier because they’ve had a few, they were supposed to fight before.”
“Obviously, I’m not privy to what the UFC is talking about, but what you just described is exactly how I feel about it. So, what the fans are thinking is – it’s no secret when you wanna leave the UFC, they wanna make sure you’re not gonna leave as a winner. They wanna make sure that you’re not gonna help another organization out is what I’m thinking. So the fights that made sense, with Poirier, and there’s a lot of other fights that made a lot more sense, they (UFC) said no to.”
The full UFC 279 event, head
