Tuesday's release of official salaries from the April 11 "Strikeforce: Shamrock vs. Diaz" in San Jose, Calif., immediately caused an inquisitive uproar with many MMA observers.
An apparent substantial difference in pay between main event winner Nick Diaz, who earned a reported $39,950, and his defeated foe, Frank Shamrock, who was shown to receive $369,790, had many questioning Strikeforce's pay scale.
But GracieFighter.com, the official website for Diaz's home training camp of Cesar Gracie Jiu-Jitsu, has indicated that Diaz's actual pay was "substantially larger."
The complete unedited statement is reprinted below:
Since figures were released by the CSAC on fighters pay from the Strikeforce event, we have received several inquiries and comments on Nick's pay. We would like to let Nick's fans know that his compensation for the event was actually substantially larger than the amount listed, due to the way his contract was structured. Nick Diaz and Strikeforce have in place a fair compensation agreement.
The UFC's practice of locker-room bonuses has been well documented in recent years. MMAjunkie.com Radio (
www.mmajunkie.com/radio) co-host – and UFC, PRIDE and Strikeforce veteran – Frank Trigg on Wednesday claimed the practice was commonplace in many different organizations.
"You know how the UFC has locker room bonuses and there's money not reported by the commissions?" Trigg asked. "That's the same for every organization."
The explanation could account for the meager $1,450 Strikeforce reportedly paid Japanese import Hitomi Akano who accepted a bout with Cristiane "Cyborg" Santos despite the Brazilian missing weight by seven pounds.
MMAjunkie.com (
www.mmajunkie.com) attempted to contact Strikeforce CEO Scott Coker for comment, but messages left were not immediately returned.
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In additional Diaz news, GracieFighter.com is also reporting that the Strikeforce winner has called out boxing legend Roy Jones Jr. (53-5 Boxing) to meet in a boxing contest.
Jones Jr. has been in extended discussions with current UFC middleweight champion and UFC 97 main event competitor Anderson Silva about a future boxing bout, but UFC President Dana White has nixed that possibility for the time being. Diaz's camp feels they may be in a better position to arrange the contest.
The original report from GracieFighter.com is included below.
Superstar boxer Roy Jones Jr. has expressed interest in facing UFC Middleweight Champion, Anderson Silva, after Silva had let his intentions be known that he wished to face Jones in a boxing contest. Promoter Bob Arum was eager to promote such a bout to let the world see that "those MMA guys can't throw a straight punch".
Unfortunately it seems the impedus to set up such a fight is dead in the water, since the UFC is no hurry to see their Champion compete in a venue not being promoted by them.
Enter Nick Diaz. With Strikeforce's more flexible attitudes towards fighting and the Strikeforce-Showtime alliance, the barriers to such a fight could very well be coming down. Our camp has already contacted Top Rank Boxing to let them know we would be 100% in favor of such a matchup. Now the ball is in their court.
The 40-year-old Jones Jr. last fought in a hybrid boxing/MMA card that promoted by his own company, Square Ring Promotions. Jones Jr. earned a fifth-round TKO over an overmatched Omar Sheika.
In addition to frequent sparring with undefeated Olympic Gold Medalist Andre Ward, Diaz has boxed once as a professional, earning a four-round unanimous-decision win over fellow rookie Alfonso Rocha in an April 2005 bout contested at 167 pounds.
Jones Jr. has typically fought around 175 pounds for the past 12 years.
