Nate Diaz changes management, now working with Mike Kogan

The Cesar Gracie circus just got a little smaller, or a little larger, depending on how you look at it. Following a recent loss to Ben Henderson at UFC on Fox 5, as well as a number of statements from Nick Diaz during the UFC 158 media call speaking to his own mishandling, UFC lightweight Nate Diaz has decided to find new management. Ariel Helwani released the following tweet from UFC Tonight yesterday evening:

For a long time now it's been apparent that Nate is a bit more levelheaded than his brother when it comes to managing his career, and especially his relationship with the UFC. While there may be any number of reasons that this decision was made, one of them surely has to be Dana White's recent adversarial stance to Cesar Gracie's management. If that could be considered a warning shot, it would appear that Nate Diaz has heeded it. As we've seen with Golden Glory before this, the UFC has little hesitation in pushing fighters away from management that they find problematic.

Of course, Nate has not actually left the Cesar Gracie fight camp. There is no sign that he's severing this relationship entirely, and I doubt that he would consider doing so. Thus, this may just end up adding to the drama surrounding the Diaz brothers; another layer to the mountain of antagonists, real and imagined. But even if it does, it may all be worth it if it means a few first class tickets and maybe even the occasional buttered up photo shoot.

Nate's next bout comes against Josh Thomson at UFC on Fox 7 on April 20th.