In the aftermath of Sunday’s five-round battle with Nate Diaz at UFC 202 in Las Vegas, featherweight champion Conor McGregor couldn’t help but revel in the ability of his opponent to keep pressing forward, despite taking a beating almost every time he did.
In fact, McGregor dropped a word we’d rarely heard from him up until that incredible night, where he avenged his only loss under the UFC banner: Respect.
“When he stepped in a few times I threw some elbows as well. I tell ya what, man, his face was opened up and he’s still just coming at me,” McGregor said. “You gotta respect that. You gotta respect Nate and the style of fight that he brings. How can you not?”
The embodiment of McGregor’s words was this brilliant moment:
Diaz lost the fight, but he won Conor McGregor’s respect. And that’s a lot for a guy who threatened to kill him and his entire team (metaphorically, of course) two days before the fight.
The feud between Diaz and McGregor has been well-documented. The Stockton, Calif., native called McGregor out just a week after McGregor’s 13-second win over Jose Aldo. And at a time when everyone wanted a piece of the Irishman, Diaz was the loudest.
“F*** that,” Diaz said after his win “Conor McGregor, you’re taking everything I worked for, motherf***er. I’m gonna fight your f***ing ass. You know what’s the real fight, what’s the real money fight -- me. Not these clowns that you already punked at the press conference. Ain’t nobody wants to see that. You know you can beat them already. It’s an easy fight. You want the real s***. Right here.”
McGregor had his run-ins with fighters up and down the UFC roster, but none had been able to match him linguistically, and surely not inside the Octagon. That is, until Diaz came around.
McGregor was supposed to fight lightweight champion Rafael dos Anjos at UFC 196, but when the Brazilian withdrew due to what McGregor called a “broken vagina,” the UFC tapped Diaz to fill in. And at the first press conference to promote the new fight, Diaz showed the world -- and McGregor -- that he had no intentions of backing down.
“I like Nick’s little bro. How can you not like him? He’s like a little cholo gangster from the hood,” McGregor said. “But at the same time he coaches kids’ jiu-jitsu on a Sunday morning and goes on bike rides with the elderly. He makes gang signs with the right hand and animal balloons with the left hand. You’re a credit to the community.”
Diaz responded in a way only a Diaz could, firing back with the verbal version of a two-finger salute.
“F*** you. F*** the belt. I don’t give a f*** what you said, motherf***er,” Diaz said.
The rematch was made before either fighter could cash the check from the first fight, in part because McGregor was obsessed with beating Diaz.
He reportedly spent $300k on his training camp preparing for part two. McGregor actually brought in tons of world-class boxers and jiu-jitsu players and spent a lot of time working on his cardio -- both things Diaz criticized him for not doing before and after their first bout.
Early in the build-up to the rematch, McGregor took his usual jabs at Diaz, but many times, those digs were coupled with a compliment.
“I feel I was close,” McGregor said at the UFC 202 pre-fight press conference after comparing Nate Diaz to Homer Simpson. “I feel like if there was a little more in the tank, I would have stopped him in the second round. So I feel I will be prepared for five. I will go in anticipating five. I didn’t give him respect. He could take a hell of a smack, the boy can. But he will take a hell of a lot more. I still feel like I’ll repay the favour second round.”
McGregor continued on similarly in the weeks following, ripping Diaz but not crossing the line, as he had done in the past … habitually.
That changed three days before the fight, however, when McGregor showed up 30 minutes late to a fight-week press conference. The UFC had no choice but to start without him, and when he finally arrived, Diaz had had enough of his antics.
“Like I said, that guy, he walked in like he was the show,” Diaz told UFC Tonight. “But when I left the show, the show was over. So who’s the show?”
McGregor would go on to avenge his first UFC loss at UFC 202, earning a hard-fought majority decision in a fight that at one point seemed poised to end in the same fashion as the first. It was surely the hardest fight of McGregor’s UFC career, but also probably his best showing.
There’s no doubt McGregor grew as a fighter during his six-month feud with Diaz, and the Stockton native’s performance throughout that span was the perfect embodiment of the old adage, “You don’t have to like me, but you’re going to respect me.”
