“The way it all panned it, I’ve got other business to deal with and I can’t do it straight away but, make no mistake, we will have a trilogy fight.”
Conor McGregor had it all mapped out, in his mind at least.
Moments before Nate Diaz and his entourage stormed out and they exchanged water bottles and cans of energy drink with ‘The Notorious’, we got a pretty straight answer. McGregor anticipated beating Diaz at UFC 202 and the ‘other business’ was a crack at the lightweight title.
Dana White may have wanted McGregor to defend his featherweight belt but the Dubliner had other ideas. After he took a decision win over Diaz, McGregor was duly given a crack at 155lbs champ Eddie Alvarez, at UFC 205, and became a two-weight world champion.
That all seems straight and true but Diaz is now offering up an alternative version of events.
Diaz posted an Instagram video of a moment from the UFC 202 press conference and wrote: ‘He never wanted to be in there with me in the first place he plotted a escape from the beginning and he still got worked the last fight.’
https://www.instagram.com/p/BOirc7AjaCP/?taken-by=natediaz209
We are struggling to tally Diaz’ angle on his two fights with McGregor this year. The pair agreed on 170lbs for the first bout, which McGregor lost, and a rematch was said to be offered at 155lbs. The way McGregor tells it, he opted to stay at 170lbs as he felt there was a point to prove.
McGregor has said, on numerous occasions, that he will fight Diaz again and John Kavanagh believes McGregor-Diaz would be a great lightweight fight.
It is possible that McGregor’s first lightweight title defence will not be against Diaz and that is why the Californian is cracking out the theory that McGregor is trying to duck him.
It is a theory, though, that seems paper-thin.