(Diaz insists all negotiations be handled through the proper channels. PicProps: CombatLifestyle.)

Don’t fret homies, Nick Diaz is totally down to fight Jason “Mayhem” Miller in the Strikeforce cage just as soon as that organization actually gets around to offering him the fight. So said Diaz mentor and trainer-to-the-stars (seriously, any stars) Cesar Gracie during an appearance on MMA Junkie Radio this week. One problem: Gracie said Mayhem can’t make welterweight and Diaz damn sure isn’t going all the way up to 185-pounds to fight him, so CEO Scott Coker (or maybe somebody who really wears the pants in Strikeforce) is going to have to figure out a catchweight. Any implication to the contrary is just Miller running his mouth, Gracie said.

"If that fight was offered, yeah, we’d probably take that fight," Gracie said. "We’d just have to look at what weight class it’s going to be in and apparently, Mayhem can’t make 170. We’re not going to accommodate going to 185 … That fight just hasn’t been offered to us in an official manner yet. I know Mayhem goes on his websites and (says) Nick is ducking him and everything.  It’s kind of hard to duck someone when you haven’t even been offered the fight. It’s just Mayhem talking about that. Until it’s been offered, you can’t say yes or no."

You know it’s serious when the Scrap Pack busts out the thesaurus and starts throwing around words like “accommodate.” Nonetheless, coming from an unbiased, down-the-middle source like Gracie we can only assume this information is on-the-level. Not that Gracie would tell us if it wasn’t. Anyway, the BJJ guru who himself once fought for Strikeforce says Diaz’s camp is targeting a possible Jan. 29 date for the Mayhem fight.

"I was talking to Strikeforce a little bit about it today," Gracie said. "No opponent has been named or anything, but (Diaz) is going to fight on that date. Hopefully Fedor will be (on the card) too. It could be a really exciting time."

Wait, a card that includes both Fedor and Diaz vs. Miller? Well, that sounds like an impossible dream. Forgive us if we mark that one on our calendar in pencil, since we don’t believe for one moment that Strikeforce could make something of such magnitude actually occur.

For his part, Gracie echoed the sentiment of his prized pupil in voicing pure befuddlement that Diaz would even be expected to fight Miller. Ever since Gracie’s boys threw him a boot party at Strikeforce: Nashville, Mayhem has been telling anyone who will listen that the welterweight champ is afraid to fight him, but this week the trainer did his best to further the notion that a bout with Miller is simply somehow beneath Diaz.

"Being the champ of ‘Bully Beatdown’ doesn’t really make you a contender," Gracie said. "It doesn’t. If he were beating people that are important, yeah (it would make sense). But the champ doesn’t need to move (up) in weight because someone says, ‘Don’t be scared, homie.’ "

True. Those are just words and words don’t necessarily call for action. They do however call for any self-respecting champion to throw a water bottle at that person when he sees them backstage.