Nate Diaz doesn't want to fight Frankie Edgar

http://bjpenn.com/mmanews/2012/03/08/mma-news-respecting-his-lineage-nate-diaz-wants-no-part-of-edgar-fight-16515.html

well if they both win I really hope he wouldn't turn down a title shot

DON'T be Scared HOMIE. miller is gonna win anyway. he won't make the same mistake cerrone did and not take diaz down.

I hope your wrong again!

ID normally be Team Diaz. But you put him against Miller or Guida and Im getting off that team! War Miller! 

Cesar doesn't allow his students to face other Gracie fighters.  He's made that widely known many times.  He'll allow BJ to come and train as he pleases, but when he had a fight with Edgar upcoming, Penn asked to train for Frankie at the  Cesar Gracie Academy and was told no.  Edgar instead spent part of his training camp working with the Diaz brothers, Shields, etc as they helped train him to beat Penn.  There is tradition and values that Cesar holds to stronger than many others but his students won't take a fight if he doesn't ok it and I can't see Cesar allowing Nate to fight Edgar.  He is that steadfast in his no Gracie fighter vs. Gracie fighter stance and Nate would never take any fight without Cesar's blessing.  Puts Nate in a tough spot.

Cesar on Renzo prepping GSP for his fight with Shields.   

“You got to understand, Renzo is like a brother to me. We grew up together, so nothing’s going to change. But I did have a talk with him and I said ‘Renzo, you’re training a guy that doesn’t represent your academy, that represents another academy to fight a guy that represents a Gracie academy.’ It doesn’t make sense to me, it just doesn’t. Georges is a great guy, from all accounts, he’s respectful, a decent human being is my understanding.”

“I’m an old-school guy, I really am and when Georges St. Pierre was training to fight Matt Serra…I couldn’t imagine a guy coming in and training with me just to beat one of my blackbelts. I just couldn’t do it. I don’t know exactly what they’re doing over there with that, it’s just not my way. I’m old school and I’m going to die old school, that’s just who I am. I made my feelings known to Renzo. I don’t think my guys appreciate it. Frankie Edgar is over there and he’s a really good kid too. He came out to my place and he’s a hard worker and he came to train for the BJ Penn fight. I refuse to have my guys train with BJ Penn for that fight. They asked us if he [BJ Penn] could train for the Frankie Edgar fight and I said ‘No’ because that’s the guy that represents Renzo Gracie”

“I just look at it like you got to carry out flag to battle, that’s pretty much it. If you can’t carry our flag to battle, then you can’t train with us.”

@kpro that's an awesome interview, but I wonder if he had an issue with his guy Josh Neer fighting Bang Ludwig who trains under Amal Easton (Easton was one of Renzo's first 10 American blackbelts and is still associated with Renzo's school) 

@SoccerKick I don't know that Cesar considers Neer a "Gracie fighter" with how he has gone camp to camp.  He did years of BJJ at Miletich FS and Des Moines MMA Academy before training at Cesar's academy where it sounds like he now finally spends most of his time there.  I honestly don't even know if Neer been promoted to a belt by anyone in the Gracie lineage.  But I guess the point is the Ludwig part, since he trained Neer for him.  I guess it was enough separation but good question.

* Edited at 03.08.2012, 10:20 PM ET *