Cesar Gracie 'blindsided' by Georges St. Pierre fight and wants to make sure Nick Diaz is 'compensated correctly'

Remember last week when Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) President Dana White told the mixed martial arts (MMA) community that he was willing to overlook Johny Hendricks in order to put together a Georges St. Pierre vs. Nick Diaz welterweight title fight?

Turns out "Bigg Rigg" wasn't the only one caught off guard.

Cesar Gracie, head coach for the eldest Diaz brother, didn't realize the former Strikeforce 170-pound kingpin was coming back to the biggest fight of his career until the media told him, but despite being "blindsided," he's still willing to put that fight together.

But also tells MMA Fighting he expects his pupil to be "compensated correctly."

"Dana announced it, we never knew about it. We learned from [the media]. We kinda got blindsided by it and we haven't been able to talk to Dana about it but now that [Ben Henderson vs. Nate Diaz] is out of the way, we can talk to Dana. We'll probably meet next week and see if we can put this thing together is what I'm thinking. I really haven't talked to Nick about it. [Dana] is going to throw so much money at [Georges St. Pierre and Anderson Silva], so maybe it's one of those types of things. This is a big money fight. These athletes are on FOX TV, they gotta be compensated correctly. They give their heart and soul into it and you got a guy playing football or hockey and they're making way more than these fighters, I think it's time, it's kinda nice when these fighters speak up, I think. Where ever the fight is gonna be, it's gonna be. We got a lot of fans in Canada, too."

Gracie may have been kept in the dark as to not disrupt his preparations for Nate Diaz, who was unsuccessful in his attempt to unseat Ben Henderson from the lightweight throne at the UFC on FOX 5 event last weekend (Dec. 8) in Seattle.

If at first you don't succeed, find another Diaz brother and try again.

While Hendricks has been running roughshod over the welterweight division, Diaz has been riding the pine following a loss to Carlos Condit at UFC 143 back in February, one that resulted in a positive drug test (marijuana metabolites) that kept him on the sidelines for a year.

But it won't keep him from a "Rush" title fight -- assuming he can get "Anderson Silva money."