– UFC President Dana White stated on the UFC 202 post-fight show that there will not be an immediate rematch between Diaz and McGregor. “He’s a businessman, so let’s see what happens”. “S*** is about to hit the fan here”. McGregor has agreed to move up twice to fight Diaz at a weight at which Diaz is clearly more comfortable and seems to want Diaz to reciprocate.
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Conor McGregor survived a five-round war with Nate Diaz and escaped with a majority decision win at UFC 202.
McGregor has not defended his featherweight belt since taking it from Jose Aldo at UFC 194 in December. All three judges, including the one who scored it a draw, had McGregor winning the first two rounds and the fourth.
“All I know is that it’s 1-1”, McGregor told BT Sport.
During and after the fight, social media was blowing up with calls for McGregor-Diaz 3. However, McGregor made a particular request with regard to the next event.
On Saturday, in a much-hyped rematch at the T-Mobile Arena, both fighters did heavy damage but neither could find the knockout blow over five bloody rounds.
Clinical in his approach, McGregor came out of the blocks, flooring Diaz early in the first round, while he continued to target the latter’s right leg. He didn’t go out and get it. And that was built through hard work and I’m going to capitalize on that.
“I want to get my abs back”, smirked McGregor when asked what his priority now is. Diaz is a natural 155-pounder.
McGregor was originally supposed to fight Rafael dos Anjos for the lightweight title at UFC 196, but dos Anjos pulled out due to injury.
After the bout both Diaz and McGregor acknowledged the obvious need for a third and final fight to decide once and for all who was the better exponent of their craft. Diaz, McGregor, Anthony Johnson and Donald Cerrone earned the $50,000 performance incentives.
A fight against McGregor would easily be the biggest of Alvarez’s career, and he would nearly certainly welcome the challenge, as well as the payday.
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Josh Gross’s full fight report will appear here shortly.
