One fajita with extra beef, please.
All because of a broken foot, we find ourselves in a peculiar situation where the featherweight champion is being welcomed to the welterweight division by the number five-ranked lightweight.
There’s no belt on the line, but UFC 196’s main event gives us the prospect of two of the promotion’s biggest personalities slugging it out, and although their rivalry is a relatively new one, its development is quite fascinating.
The beef between Conor McGregor and Nate Diaz has been boiling away in the slow cooker for a while and it’s almost time to take that bad boy out and feast our eyes on the delicious violence.
Early days
It began when Stockton native Diaz gave his take on McGregor’s infamously stealing Jose Aldo’s belt during the final leg of the UFC 189 World Tour. Diaz criticised the Brazilian on the MMA Hour over how he handled the situation.
“You don’t let somebody do that. Or just laugh at him. Like, Aldo got all bent out of shape when the guy took his belt. He should’ve just laughed at him, been like, ‘Keep the belt. This ain’t about the belt. It’s about your ass whooping.’ I would’ve let him have it. Take that home and put it on.”
While this brief quote does show that the Stockton native has a completely different mindset to Aldo, the more interesting part of that interview was when he argued that McGregor calling out dos Anjos didn’t make sense for the self-proclaimed “ruler of the numbers”, and that he was the money fight the Dubliner should be campaigning for.
“Conor McGregor keeps talking about coming up and fighting dos Anjos. I don’t know what that’s gonna do for him. That guy’s got like 10 followers or some s**t.”
“So if these guys want some real fights, then they can call and work it out, or if I can figure it out, I’m game to fight if the money is going to be worth it.”
No cigar
Skip forward to July when the proverbial hit the other proverbial and the mad scramble began. 12 days before the most anticipated fight of his career, Aldo suffered a rib injury while sparring and was forced to withdraw from UFC 189’s main event.
Rather than scrap the fight entirely, the UFC began their search for a replacement. For a brief moment, it looked like Diaz got the gig.
Note the final hashtag. As crass as it may be, it gives an indication into the contrasting personalities between the two warriors. Diaz is a loose cannon, unpredictably explosive while McGregor is calculated and surgically precise with his verbal attacks.
The UFC opted to call in the then number-one featherweight contender Chad Mendes to fight McGregor for the interim strap, but Diaz maintained he was asked if he was interested.
Don't get it twisted they called me ..
— Nathan Diaz (@NateDiaz209) June 25, 2015
Go bigger
Diaz found himself outside the line of fire of McGregor’s trash-talking tirade at the UFC’s behemoth Go Big press conference. The Irishman used the event as a means of setting up potential fights for years to come by unloading with that acerbic-tongue at some of the top lightweights in the promotion.
While Cowboy put up a bit of a fight as McGregor mercilessly slammed the 155 lbers for being “stuck in the mud”, dos Anjos kept his trap firmly shut. Diaz wasn’t impressed with either man’s reaction.
He would have done things differently.
@Cowboycerrone @RdosAnjosMMA lames you should've stepped up in that press conference instead you both got punked out like some #bitches..
— Nathan Diaz (@NateDiaz209) September 6, 2015
Jackin’ my swag
Prior to UFC on Fox 17, Diaz took aim at McGregor in a way he never had before. He claimed to MMAJunkie that the Notorious’ trash-talking antics merely served as a tribute act to the persona he had pioneered in the UFC, albeit McGregor was having more success selling his bad boy image.
“Conor McGregor’s been saying all the same shit that I’ve been saying for the last five years and the UFC is pushing that.
“He peeped game, he stole the blueprint on what to do and he’s spitting it out. He’s doing a good job of it but I’m the money fight. That shit came from right here. But they’re backing it and hiding me behind the corner.”
The culmination
Seven days after McGregor usurped King Aldo’s throne, Diaz put on perhaps the best performance of his career against top lightweight Michael Johnson. Diaz put on a boxing masterclass to earn the unanimous decision victory over Johnson.
After the fight, he had a certain newly-crowned champion in his sights.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6RwPu2u4DCQ
SBG head coach John Kavanagh was watching and he issued a warning to Diaz over the call out.
Absorbing that many shots would make it a very very short night if he was to meet a real hitter #BeCarefulWhatYouWishFor
— Coach JK (@John_Kavanagh) December 20, 2015
However, there was a queue forming as dos Anjos called out the Notorious after his first round demolition of Cerrone in the headline bout. Frankie Edgar, who solidified his featherweight contendership status with his quick knockout of Chad Mendes the week before had also been campaigning for a shot at McGregor.
The man with the target on his back had one succinct message for all of them.
Line them up on their knees with their hands out. I want them to beg me. pic.twitter.com/YCYf0QslNR
— Conor McGregor (@TheNotoriousMMA) December 20, 2015
Dropping hints
Earlier this month, we saw McGregor take a direct swipe at Diaz at the World MMA Awards. Playing on the “I can save your bum life” claims he made during the Go Big presser, he slagged Diaz over his low salary, which in hindsight was an indication that he was interested in that match-up.
“I heard Nate Diaz couldn’t afford the flight over to Las Vegas for the ceremony.”
“Hard work pays so take note. Stop holding bitterness deep in your bum soul, stuck on 20,000 to show and 20,000 to fight. I wipe my ass with that money.”
Eating his own words
Two and a half weeks after he scored that cheap shot on Diaz, it was announced that dos Anjos was out of UFC 196. Yet again, the UFC found themselves desperately looking for an adequate replacement.
Once it became apparent that Aldo, Edgar, Cerrone and Alvarez wouldn’t be getting their Red Panty Night this time around, that left one obvious choice. Diaz knew he had leverage over the UFC when it came to negotiations and he had no problem with flaunting his favourable position on social media by rehashing McGregor’s initial insult to him.
He's going to have to get on his knees and beg…
— Nathan Diaz (@NateDiaz209) February 23, 2016
Ten days notice is a big ask for a fighter as big as Diaz to move cut down to 155 lb. Reports emerged that Diaz requested that it be a catchweight bout at 165 lb. McGregor, never failing to seize an opportunity to showcase his mental toughness, upped the ante.
… McGregor adds one more note:
"Make it 170," he says. "Tell him to get comfortable."
The fight is made. At welterweight. #ufc196
— Ariel Helwani (@arielhelwani) February 24, 2016
And then they finally met
25 minutes of pure entertainment ensued at the pre-fight press conference with both fighters having their moments. Unlike past occasions with other fighters, McGregor didn’t have it all his way with Diaz. If you were to score that presser like a fight, no doubt McGregor would have won, but Diaz managed to get a rise out of the Dubliner with his trash talk about McGregor being a juicer who was a little too attached to his belt.
"I only Give a *** about Big Checks" – @TheNotoriousMMA #UFC196 https://t.co/eDs4b0zZSn https://t.co/44ijARAPbA
— UFC (@ufc) February 24, 2016
Diaz poses a different kind of threat to McGregor. He’s explosive but doesn’t quite have the same blind temper that Dustin Poirier and Aldo seemed to possess. He also knows all the tricks of the smack talk game and because of this this, there is a genuine chance that neither fighter’s verbal jabs will affect their opponent… not that it will stop them from trying.
At the time of writing, it does not appear that McGregor has taken up residency in Diaz’s head, but with another press conference scheduled before fight night, there are bound to be more memorable exchanges between the pair.
