Conor McGregor has Nate Diaz trilogy and many more options in mind
The animosity between Conor McGregor and Nate Diaz reached a brief truce following their fierce mutual interest in destruction.
Make no mistake, however: Each is plotting a decisive resolution to an undeniable trilogy.
“He’s a class competitor,” McGregor said late Saturday after defeating Diaz by majority decision (48-47, 47-47, 48-47) in the UFC 202 main event at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.
“It’s intense in the buildup. This battle was won. We’ll regroup, we’ll go our separate ways … and then we’ll be right back where we started.”
Diaz, of Stockton, said when he lifted up McGregor after trying to finish him with punches on the canvas at the close of the fifth and final round that he thought, “He tried, I tried.”
So Diaz told McGregor, “Hey man, until next time. It’s all good.”
But the path to that trilogy could become as complex as the road to a first McGregor-Diaz fight in March.
Diaz smoked a vape pen during his news conference and said, for him, it’s not complicated at all.
“Whenever they’re ready to rock, but I ain’t doing [anything] until we go for round three,” Diaz said after pocketing a guaranteed $2 million plus a fight-of-the-night bonus. “You won’t be seeing me. I don’t think it’s a good business move for him to take any other fights. He’s a businessman, so we’ll see what happens.”
McGregor had a shin injury to deal with first. He came to the news conference on crutches, headed to the hospital afterward and said it was the result of altering his fight plan from the first meeting by trying an estimated “40 kicks” on Diaz’s legs.
The hospital visit revealed no break, nothing serious.
Cryptically, the final words of his news conference came after a question about the possibility of him fighting in the UFC’s debut New York card in November.
“[Stuff] is about to hit the fan right now, I feel,” McGregor said.
He’s alluding to UFC President Dana White’s position that McGregor is obligated to return to the featherweight division for his next fight or have his belt stripped. The fighter, however, wants to select whatever he believes is his best opportunity.
“I don’t think they want to do that. How can they do that?” McGregor said of stripping the belt. “If they want to do that — give my belt to the guy I KO’d in 13 seconds — we’ll see. What would that do the division? We’ve got a lot to talk about.
“I’m in a beautiful position right now and that was a [result] of hard work, and I want to capitalize on that.”
How can he be punished, McGregor reasons, considering the fact he’s drawn a record live gate, the best-selling pay-per-view audience in company history and a top-five live gate in his last three fights.
He knocked out “interim” featherweight champion Jose Aldo of Brazil in 13 seconds in December, and said he wasn’t overly impressed by Aldo’s July unanimous decision over Frankie Edgar.
“How long was I going back and forth with Jose [before the December fight]? Two years? He bailed [with an injury to delay the first meeting],” McGregor said. “Then he stood in and I beat him in 13 seconds.
“So, I don’t know. I’m the 145-pound champion. The interim champion is a man I KO’d in 13 seconds. So we’ve got to figure out what’s next.
“There’s many, many things in the pipeline, so sit tight.”
The UFC is expected to take the next week or two to decide what direction to take with McGregor’s situation.
In the meantime, talk will linger about the quality of Saturday’s bout, which saw McGregor answer his second-round submission loss to Diaz in March by knocking him down three times in the fight’s first seven minutes.
“Boy, is he one tough [guy],” McGregor said of Diaz. “He kept walking forward, took every shot I gave and I dropped him multiple times … he was still coming forward.”
Diaz has never wore a UFC belt in his 10 years, but his mettle was title-worthy Saturday. He dominated the third round, landing harder punches than the ones he used to set up McGregor’s stoppage earlier in the year.
“I told myself to turn it on later, I knew I’d speed up,” Diaz said. “I stepped on the gas.
“[McGregor] prepared to go the distance. He said he’d walk me down. He didn’t. He spread it out a little bit. He didn’t want it to go to the floor. I wasn’t going drastically for [a submission]; I should have. I wasn’t pushing too hard. I wanted it when I had the chance.”
Diaz said he was hampered in training by knee and rib injuries that limited his training. “I had a lot of plans for this fight, but had to backtrack from them,” he said.
McGregor’s resolve earned him the fourth round, allowed him to survive pressure in the fifth and won him the fight.
He took a prideful pause when it was done.
“The whole of [losing in March] brought out the best in me and forced me to look at myself truly,” McGregor said. “It wasn’t easy, it was a war. Conor McGregor showed heart in there. Everyone from the media to the fighters — nobody had me in this one and they tried to say if I lose this one, I’m done,” he said.
“I was listening to all these people celebrating my demise … it lit a fire under my belly. Every single person and fighter doubted me.
“Doubt me now.”
Twitter: @latimespugmire
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