Nate Diaz has Conor McGregor’s back on this one.
“The Notorious” has come under fire in recent weeks after a toe injury led him to withdraw from a highly anticipated UFC 303 main event bout against Michael Chandler. Adding to the frustration for MMA fans was the veil of secrecy surrounding the status of the main event after McGregor’s absence led to the cancellation of a press conference that was to take place in Dublin on June 3. It wasn’t until 10 days later that the UFC announced McGregor vs. Chandler would not be happening at the June 29 pay-per-view.
One of the voices that has spoken out in support of McGregor is Diaz, a longtime rival who has twice fought McGregor inside the octagon. On the MightyCast podcast, Diaz told Demetrious Johnson that the injuries McGregor dealt with in his most recent fight likely informed his decision to back out of the Chandler fight.
“That’s experience, he was f*cked up when he fought his last fight and I’ve been f*cked up in hella fights,” Diaz said. “I don’t like to cry about it afterwards because your ass shouldn’t have came to the fight if you were f*cked up, that’s how I think about it. … Shouldn’t have shown up and got your ass whooped, you still got your ass whooped.
“So I’m like, from the inexperience angle, all the people are f*cking talking shit but he doesn’t give a f*ck and I felt the same way. The show got pushed back, it didn’t get cancelled. He bossed up on that shit, they should fight in a few months and then everyone criticizing him for pulling out, he didn’t pull out, they pushed back.”
McGregor has not fought since July 2021 at UFC 264, where he broke his leg in the first round of a trilogy bout against Dustin Poirier. The injury has kept McGregor on the shelf for the better part of the last three years.
The fact that McGregor’s star power gives him plenty of leverage when it comes to possibly re-booking the Chandler fight is one reason why Diaz feels he was wise to withdraw from UFC 303.
“That’s how I felt when I fought Leon Edwards,” Diaz said. “I was training so good for that fight and two weeks before I got cut on my chin and my eye, I had to cancel—I was stressed out like, ‘F*ck, I ain’t trying to cancel this fight, it’s in two weeks though’ and I’m f*cking split. I’m like, ‘That f*cking sucks’ and I stressed out for about 10, 20 minutes, like, ‘Bro, I ain’t pulling out of the fight.’ I’ll just get stitched up, I’ll go fight this motherf*cker or whatever, it was just kind of hectic for a minute. I was like, ‘F*ck that, call the UFC and tell them to push it to Arizona.’ A month later, tell them to push it to that. I can’t go out like this, I’m going to lose, f*cking right off the bat this shit will split open.
“So they call these motherf*ckers and they hit my guy back and were like, ‘So what’s up? He just doesn’t want to fight or what?’ And we’re just like, ‘No, he just got cut. He wants to push it to the next show.’ And they pushed it to the next show. I was like, thank God, because I didn’t want to be pulling out of no fight.”
It remains to be seen if McGregor vs. Chandler ever happens, with both fighters seemingly open to the possibility while also staying non-committal as to when the matchup might be rescheduled.
No matter what McGregor’s next move is, Diaz thinks that people have no right to criticize how McGregor has chosen to deal with his injuries.
“So now before you just jump to conclusions and start being like, ‘He’s hurt, f*cking p*ssy,’ it’s like, ‘Bro, he lost his last fight because he went in there like a G and he was hurt and he f*cked himself up,’” Diaz said. “That being [said], he shouldn’t have showed up [at UFC 264] though. Now he knows.
“People were like, ‘Well…’ Why don’t you shut up and sit down?”
As for his own history with McGregor, Diaz knows that a trilogy bout between them is going to be a topic of conversation until one of them hangs up the gloves for good. Diaz handed McGregor his first loss inside the octagon when he submitted McGregor at UFC 196, then dropped a majority decision in a thrilling five-round rematch at UFC 202. Both events rank among the most successful pay-per-views in UFC history.
Diaz’s own history of pre-fight injuries is one reason why he’s certain that he and McGregor will run it back one more time.
“I f*cking ripped the cartilage in my rib [ahead of UFC 202], I can’t even fight this motherf*cker,” Diaz said. “F*ck that, I’m not not going, I f*cked that shit. I was f*cked up in that fight. Yeah, we’re fighting a third time. The second one wasn’t fair. Hell yeah, and I still f*cking got one too.”
“That’s 100 percent,” he added. “I’m fighting all these motherf*ckers again if they don’t fall off and retire.
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