Nick Diaz isn't interested in Anderson Silva's title, he just wants a superfight

When Cesar Gracie teased an announcement on Nick Diaz's fighting future days ago, the last thing on anyone's mind was that the suspended Stockton slugger would call someone out.

Especially not Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) Middleweight Champion Anderson Silva.

That's exactly what happened, though, when Gracie posted that Diaz was "respectfully" asking for a fight against the pound-for-pound king of mixed martial arts (MMA). But on what grounds?

Initially, Gracie simply stated that because Silva's camp had started making mention of a potential superfight against Georges St. Pierre, possibly at a catchweight between 170 and 185-pounds, Diaz was throwing his name in the discussion because "Rush" is currently occupied with Carlos Condit.

Diaz, meanwhile, is free to return to the cage in February of next year after his suspension from the Nevada State Athletic Commission (NSAC) is up, though he says he's "appealing to the courts."

Now, Gracie has expounded upon his original point in an interview with Middle Easy:

"Why Anderson? Because Anderson is a huge name. He's talking the talk that is kind of what we're talking about. He's talking about doing superfights. He's talking about the things that Nick's been talking about that Nick did when he was with Strikeforce that Nick is into. That's why. And he's exciting and just a great fighter. He's talking about catchweights, he's talking about exciting fights that people want to see instead of being limited to fighting, you know, if this is your weight class, if this is the number one contender, this guy did this, this guy did that. We're not interested.... people are thinking now, 'Why does Nick want to fight this guy? Why does Nick get a shot at the title?' It's not about the title. If he was at 185, we don't want the title. Nick isn't trying to be disrespectful to other great middleweights out there on campus and want that. There are a lot of great middleweights that are at the front of the line for a title shot. This is about fighting and a superfight."

What he seems to be saying is that, essentially, the UFC middleweight division is enough of a mess that Silva and his team are seeking challenges outside of it that will make them a lot of money and present them with an interesting challenge.

Diaz, seeing a similar opportunity, decided to keep his name in the discussion by releasing a statement asking for the fight, seeing as St. Pierre is still rehabilitating his knee injury and even when he does recover, he's got a fight against Condit to worry about.

It isn't about the title, or divisional relevance, or sporting interests, or anything else. It's just an interesting fight that fans would pay damn good money to see.

For their part, Team Silva is open to the bout, at least according to a tweet from Silva's manager, Ed Soares:

"I think the idea of @SpiderAnderson vs @nickdiaz209 is pretty good. Let's see what the @ufc thinks?"

Could this fight really be coming together? Is there a chance in hell it actually happens?