Nate Diaz defends Conor McGregor in this case.
“The Notorious” has come under fire in recent weeks after a toe injury forced him to pull out of a high-profile bout against Michael Chandler in the main event of UFC 303. McGregor's absence led to the cancellation of a press conference scheduled for June 3 in Dublin, and the status of the main event was shrouded in secrecy, adding to frustration among MMA fans. It was 10 days later when UFC announced that the McGregor-Chandler bout would not take place on the June 29 pay-per-view.
One person speaking out in support of McGregor is longtime rival Diaz, who has fought McGregor twice inside the Octagon. Mighty Cast On the podcast, Diaz told Demetrious Johnson that the injury McGregor suffered in his most recent fight likely influenced his decision to pull out of the Chandler fight.
“That's the experience. He got screwed in his last fight and I've gotten screwed in a lot of fights,” Diaz said. “I don't like crying afterwards. If I got screwed I shouldn't have come to the fight. That's my opinion. … I shouldn't have gone out there and gotten screwed, and I got screwed.”
“So from an inexperience standpoint, everyone was saying shit like that, but he didn't care and I felt the same way. The show was postponed, it wasn't cancelled. He took the lead on it and ended up fighting it a few months later, and everyone criticised him for backing out, but he didn't back out, they fought back.”
McGregor hasn't fought since breaking his leg in the first round of his trilogy against Dustin Poirier at UFC 264 in July 2021. The injury has sidelined McGregor for the majority of the past three years.
The fact that McGregor's star power gives him enough leverage to potentially rebook the Chandler fight is one of the reasons Diaz feels he was wise to pull out of UFC 303.
“That's how I felt when I fought Leon Edwards,” Diaz said. “I was training so well for that fight and then two weeks before I had to cancel it because I cut myself on my jaw and my eye. I was so stressed out, I was like, 'Damn, I don't want to cancel this fight, but it's two weeks away,' and I was so depressed. I was like, 'This is the worst,' and I was so stressed out for like 10 or 20 minutes and I was like, 'Dude, I'm not pulling out of the fight.' I was just kind of panicked, like, I'm gonna get stitched up and fight this motherfucker or whatever it was. I was like, 'Fuck that, call UFC and tell them to postpone it to Arizona.' A month later they said it was postponed. I can't go in like this, I'm gonna lose, this motherfucker is gonna rip right off the bat.
“So they called some motherfuckers and they punched my guy back and they were like, 'What's wrong? He just doesn't want to fight?' And we were like, 'No, he just got cut. We want to carry it over to the next show.' So they carried it over to the next show and I was like, 'Thank God, because I didn't want to go off without a fight.'”
It remains to be seen whether a McGregor vs. Chandler bout will go ahead, but both fighters have sounded open to the possibility, though they have declined to say when the fight might be rescheduled.
Whatever McGregor's next move, Diaz believes people have no right to criticize the way he has chosen to deal with his injury.
“So before you jump to conclusions and say, 'He's hurt, damn it,' I say, 'Hey, the reason he lost his last fight is because he went in like a G and got hurt and messed himself up,'” Diaz said. [said]He shouldn't have come [at UFC 264] But now he knows.
“How about we all just sit there in silence?”
Speaking of his own history with McGregor, Diaz knows their trilogy matchup will be talked about until either of them retires. Diaz submitted McGregor at UFC 196, handing him his first loss inside the Octagon, then lost a majority decision in a thrilling five-round rematch at UFC 202. Both events went on to be among the most successful pay-per-views in UFC history.
Diaz's own pre-fight injury history is one of the reasons he's confident he and McGregor will meet again.
“My rib cartilage was torn. [ahead of UFC 202]”I can't even fight this motherfucker,” Diaz said. “Fuck, I'm not gonna go, I destroyed that shit. That fight destroyed me. Yes, we'll fight a third time. The second time wasn't fair. Yes, I still have one more.”
“That's 100 percent,” he added. “If they don't retire or drop out, I'm going to fight these motherfuckers again.”
