It’s coming.
The announcement that every Irish MMA fan is waiting for is expected to be confirmed in the next ten days, as Conor McGregor and Nate Diaz get set for a rematch at UFC 200.
The California fighter got the better of the 27-year-old at at UFC 196 earlier this month, in a fight staged at 170lbs.
It’s expected that a re-match may be fought at featherweight this summer, but Joe Rogan feels that the Irishman has a lot of improving to do if he is to achieve victory.
Speaking on his MMA podcast, The Joe Rogan Experience the UFC commentator admits that he was worried about the strength of Nate Diaz’s jiu-jitsu skills in the fight and the fact that Joseph Duffy had previously submitted Conor McGregor.
Rogan feels that if the Irishman is to have any hope of success, his ground game will need to be improved hugely.
“A guy like Conor, if you’ve been tapped before, especially by a guy like Joe Duffy with an arm triangle, if you get caught like that, you got a lot to learn, and I don’t know if you’ve learned it. You got to be obsessed with jiu-jitsu, you gotta be in there everyday and I don’t think it was that, it was more movement and striking and all that stuff and I know he was doing some jiu-jitsu but it’s not like the primary focus so I felt that’s a big deep end jump.”
Rogan feels the fact that Diaz knows McGregor’s ground game is not as highly skilled as the Stockton native, will force the Irishman to improve.
“Now that he (McGregor) didn’t, and that Nate knows he didn’t and they are going into the second fight, and Nate is going to have a full training camp, ooh, good luck.”
Rogan was also clear on the biggest attraction for both men in setting up a rematch after their UFC 196 showdown.
“Cash money baby, through the roof, cash money! The amount of money that rematch makes is going to be off the charts.”
