For the first time since he stormed into the UFC, Conor McGregor is up against an opponent that revels in mind games and verbal warfare.
In the lead-up to UFC 196, Nate Diaz landed some good shots on McGregor in the press outings and interviews (steroids, training partner, featherweight belt comfort blanket). The Notorious had a few of his own but Diaz left some marks.
At Wednesday’s final UFC 202 press conference, the Californian had a plan if McGregor showed up late, as he normally does. He wasn’t hanging around for his opponent, especially after he showed up 20 minutes late. The bottle-throwing that followed was surely not planned but the walk out was. As Artem Lobov remarked, it was ‘as fake as Pamela Anderson’s tits’.
Backstage footage of the press conference aftermath shows a McGregor we have rarely seen before – rattled, distracted, livid.
As UFC president Dana White and Dave Scholler, vice president of PR, escort him to the back, McGregor is apoplectic:
“McGregor: What’s he getting out of here for? We had to face off.
“We had to keep it going… the little fool!
“Let me go [back] out. I want to see what’s going on.
Scholler: “I know where your head is at right now. Chill. Saturday night is two nights away.
McGregor: “F**k! Get me out of this f**king… Why did he get out of here? We could have just faced off and kept it going. Why did he storm off?
“I’m going to kill yer man. Seriously, I’m going to bleedin’ burst yer man… Ahhhh, f**k all that, f**k all that!Serious man. F**k sake.
“Seriously, it’s on now. Ahhhh.”
The remainder of the latest UFC Embedded episode, released this morning, features Nick Diaz giving his side of events, Nate loving the reaction to events and Gilbert Melendez praising the brothers’ decision to bounce.
At last night’s open work-outs, the Diaz exit was the hot topic but McGregor wasn’t having any of it.
“F**k Team Diaz and if you’re with Team Diaz, f**k you too!”
Mic drop and he was gone.
McGregor is used to writing and performing the scripts. Right now, he’s reacting to them.
McGregor-Diaz II takes place in Las Vegas on Saturday night.
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