Strikeforce Welterweight Nick Diaz

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Via f4wonline.com:

The Nick Diaz vs Jay Heiron fight scheduled for the Aug 15 Strikeforce show in San Jose may be off pending results of a drug test. Diaz is scheduled to take the test Monday.

Diaz was scheduled to take a pre-fight drug test tonight in order to get licensed and no showed. Caesar Gracie stated Wednesday that Diaz would appear for the test tonight in Sacramento. Neither Diaz nor Caesar showed up for the test and representatives for Diaz said Diaz was "busy training".

Because of the time required to get test results back, CSAC believes the test would have had to be taken tonight. Strikeforce was contacted and promised Diaz would appear for the test Monday. CSAC has agreed to this new date but has stated there is a good chance test results will not be back in time to license him for the show.

Strikeforce continues to be bombarded with monkey wrench after monkey wrench, but thus far have been able to negate them for this upcoming Strikeforce show.  I hope this fight is able to take place, because it should be a GREAT fight and Jay Hieron deserves it. 

Zach Arnold makes the case:

Forget about Diaz, since he never seems to be in the right frame of mind on various levels. Focus on poor Jay Hieron, who has taken it on the chin from his days in the IFL and then the canceled fight against Paul "Semtex" Daley that was set for Affliction 3 on 8/1 and now this. It’s hard enough for a lot of MMA fighters to make a living, but when you continue to get screwed by your opponents or promoters you work for time after time, it may be time to find another profession

I couldn't agree more, because Hieron has experienced this sort of thing repeatedly within the last year.  There's nothing worse for a fighter than putting in the time to train and making all of those sacrifices, then finding out you will not get to perform or get paid.  One hopes Strikeforce can find a replacement for Hieron if indeed Diaz is not cleared to fight.

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