At the UFC 202 on Sunday, McGregor, the reigning UFC Featherweight champion and arguably the most popular (as well as controversial) MMA fighter in the world, produced one of the best performances of his career to defeat Nate Diaz in a rematch to their UFC 196 fight. So over that five months or whatever it was since the last fight, he grew. CSNBayArea.com also scored the contest 48-47 for McGregor.
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Muhammed Ali, who was big on trash talking his opponents and playing mind games with them, had a huge impact on McGregor. “The king is back”. However, Diaz started picking up his aggression at the end of the second round to the point he could have stole the round. Each has a win over the other, thereby setting up a trilogy fight.
He said: “Hey, good job today, Conor, but we’re going for three”. “Just as I expected, he was going to slow down and I was going to speed up”.
Diaz and McGregor left it all in the octagon. Diaz attempted 446 strikes, and McGregor attempted 313. The majority decision victory meant revenge had been secured but it was unclear if McGregor could yet taste how sweet it was given just how much of a punishment both he and Diaz had taken.
“I hit him one or two [punches] back to the body and that sort of swayed it in my favor, but it was a hell of fight”. He came to the news conference on crutches, headed to the hospital afterward and said it was the result of altering his fight plan from the first meeting by trying an estimated “40 kicks” on Diaz’s legs. I’m ready for [No. 3]. He did what I told him to do.
The Dubliner executed brutal leg kicks and sharp crisp punching while staying out of range to ensure that he irrefutably won the opening two rounds.
Now with the score at one each, a final third fight to decide who is top dog is surely in the works. If you want to be successful in this business, you have to follow the leader. Come back down and I’ll see you at UFC205 or drop the belt!
Neither fighter fought since then as a rematch was announced shortly after, despite McGregor still being the featherweight champion of the UFC. “So I don’t know, we’ll see”. “If I was Conor, I’d defend my title”. He dominated the third round, landing harder punches than the ones he used to set up McGregor’s stoppage earlier in the year. He went down twice more in the second round.
Diaz started to go on the offensive after that, pressing into his smaller opponent with volume striking.
But the path to that trilogy could become as complex as the road to a first McGregor-Diaz fight in March. He pushed McGregor into a clinch and tried to use his size advantage, but McGregor broke off and landed shots.
Five gruelling rounds were required to separate the two with both parties coming away with punishing side effects from the clash.
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But he didn’t panic and got to the next break, by which time he looked to have recovered as he won the fourth round and gritted it through the fifth.
