WARNING: There were lots and lots of curses.
It all spilled over at last night’s UFC 196 press conference at the MGM Grand’s David Copperfield Theater.
Conor McGregor did not take kindly to Nate Diaz squaring up and hovering a fist about an inch from his face during the planned face-off.
McGregor smacked Diaz’ extended arm and forced both fighters’ teams to flood the stage. UFC president Dana White, as he so often is, was right in the middle of it and calling for calm.
TMZ had their cameras and microphones well placed during the fracas and picked up the not-so-pleasantries.
As the tables were being cleared for the face-off, McGregor was affronted at the barbs coming from Team Diaz, with his opponent’s training partner Jake Shields also involved. Here’s how it went down:
McGregor: “What the f*ck are you looking at? I’ll strangle you in a heartbeat, and you as well ya little juice-head.”
Shields: “I’ll slap the shit out of you.”
McGregor: “You’ll do nothing.”
Before Diaz was called over for the face-off, he received some last-minute words from his older brother, Nick.
Nick Diaz: “If he f*cking even touches you, it’s on.”
Of course, McGregor did touch Diaz. It was on.
All kicked off. pic.twitter.com/4uHfkdnHfg
— SportsJOE (@SportsJOEdotie) March 3, 2016
As security staff tried to clear the stage and keep the fighters apart, McGregor and Diaz let rip.
McGregor: What are you going to do?
Nate Diaz: “You f*cking sorry little bitch. F*cking bitch.”
McGregor: “We’ll see in there p*ssy. We’ll see in there.”
Nate Diaz [to security]: “I ain’t leaving.”
McGregor [returning]: “What the f*ck you gonna do? What you gonna do? You’ll do nothing. You’ll do f*cking nothing.”
With that, McGregor was escorted off the stage and the Diaz brothers were left to stew.
Check out the full video here [it all kicks off from around 1:44].
It should make for an extremely interesting weigh-in at the same venue this evening.
