It’s fair to say McGregor vs Diaz 2 was an absolute war.
For five rounds the Irishman and the American tore into each other with Diaz’s face left a bloodied mess when the final buzzer sounded.
MMA fighters and commentators from Colin Cowherd to Dan Hardy were saying it was one of the greatest fights the UFC had ever witnessed.
McGregor dominated Diaz in the first two rounds – landing scything kicks on the Stockton fighter’s heavy lead leg at will and managing to knock the granite-jawed fighter down three times.
Diaz clawed his way back into the fight. He started finding his range, landing shots, pushing the pace and putting the tiring McGregor in all kinds of trouble.
But for a clever slip, Diaz unloading on McGregor against the fences could have ended the Irishman’s night, but he hung on and even resisted the bigger man’s takedowns until the last 20 seconds of the fifth round.
There were so many incredible moments in the back-and-forth blood-bath of a fight.
But one moment that really stood out came as Diaz made one of his trademark attempt at goading his opponent.
Winding McGregor up in the first fight at UFC 196 worked a treat. It caused McGregor to lose his head, swing for Diaz and make some rash moves which ultimately ended badly for the Dubliner.
But not this time. McGregor was cold, calculated and stuck to the game plan of staying just out of range, working the leg kicks and using the slip and strike to devastating effect.
Diaz, who said he’d been trash talking McGregor all through the fight, tried to push his buttons in the same vein as UFC 196 – grinning at him across the Octagon.
But he came a cropper for it almost immediately as McGregor wiped the smirk right off his face with a beautiful left hand. It was emblematic of McGregor’s single-mindedness and equanimity throughout the fight.
Mere mortals surely wouldn’t have been able to withstand the barrage of shots that the Irishman threw – certainly no-one in the featherweight division.
But Diaz is absolutely bomb proof. Bloody face aside (he’s got a lot of scar tissue from his 30 pro fights) Diaz was just not going to be stopped – even by a big-punching McGregor – and he just kept coming at McGregor for five brutal rounds.
Fans on Reddit MMA were still in awe of the fight and with such interest in the pair, Diaz McGregor 3 can’t be too long off…
