Nate Diaz has an interesting take on how Jose Aldo could use Conor McGregor’s own mind games against him.
The former UFC lightweight contender made a typical Diaz-like appearance on the MMA Hour this week. Nick’s little brother spoke his unfiltered mind to the presenter about Conor McGregor’s rivalry with Jose Aldo.
Diaz reckons that Aldo hasn’t been handling McGregor’s relentless taunting well in the build up to their title bout in July. In his mind, the undisputed featherweight champ didn’t do himself any favours with his reaction to the Notorious snatching his belt at the recent World Tour event in Dublin.
“Aldo’s team is f**king up, because let me tell you something: if I had Conor fighting somebody like that, and they were going to make sure one of the guys gets up in your face, you smack his ass to the floor. You know what I’m saying?”
Diaz thinks that Aldo made a mistake by rising out of his chair and trying to grab his belt back off the Irish man. He suggested that Aldo would have been far better off if he responded to McGregor’s stunt a little more smugly.
“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.”
The Stockton native commended McGregor’s approach to the media obligations for the fight. He implied that McGregor’s handling of the media work and how he has been marketing himself has made him overshadow Aldo.
“But hey, Conor McGregor, he’s doing his thing. He’s doing a good job of that and I’m not hating on him. I think he’s doing a great job marketing himself. Everybody’s forgotten who the champ is already because it’s the McGregor show”
McGregor has been hinting at making a move up to lightweight for a while now, and at the World Tour event in Dublin he revealed he plans on taking on newly-crowned lightweight champ Rafael dos Anjos somewhere down the line.
However, Diaz reckons that there’s another fighter in the 155 lb division that would be a far more worthy opponent for the Dubliner.
“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.”
Diaz was scheduled to fight Matt Brown on the undercard of UFC 189 below McGregor’s title fight against Aldo . However, Brown’s revealed on Twitter that the fight has been pulled from the event.
Fight against @NateDiaz209 isn't happening. I'll update you guys soon as I get the word on opponent/date/ thanks for the support as always!
— Matt Brown (@IamTheImmortal) April 15, 2015
You can check out the full interview with Diaz in the video embedded below.
Hat-tip to Bloody Elbow
