The following is an excerpt from an interview with EliteXC vice president Turi Altavilla, conducted by our buddy Sam Caplan from CBS Sports:
CBSSports.com: You recently made your debut as a matchmaker during a King of the Cage show but prior to that you had done some matchmaking before on a one-off basis. In fact weren't you involved with putting together the Nick Diaz vs. Takanori Gomi match last February?
Turi Altavilla: Yes, that's right. That was my match but I shared credit with Jerry (Millen). We were looking for an opponent for (Takanori) Gomi and we wanted to get an American opponent. I was originally reaching out to Duane Ludwig; I thought that would be a really fun match because I thought they'd both stand. But Duane was booked. He would have dropped the fight he was in but he was the main event in his own event in Colorado.
So he couldn't do it and I think maybe within two days of that Nick (Diaz) was fighting in Florida and the event was canceled. The light bulb went off and I thought “Wow, what a great match that would be.” I didn't know it was going to be as great as it was but I knew it would be a good match.
It's funny but even though Gomi/Diaz happened in February, it was just a few weeks ago that I thanked (EliteXC Live Events President) Gary Shaw for letting the match happen. We were working late and it popped in my mind randomly and we were like yeah, that one ended up working out nicely for everyone.
Q: Do you think there's any chance we would get to see a rematch between Diaz and Gomi inside of an EliteXC cage?
TA: Yeah, I think anything is possible, for sure. We've talked about it on the EliteXC side. I think it's something that Gomi would want. I don't think he'd want to continue his career without having the opportunity to do it (avenge the loss to Diaz). We're very open to doing it and I think I should leave it at that.
To read the complete interview, click here.
