With the series tied at a victory apiece, and with both men taking home lucrative purses, Diaz received a disclosed $2 million while McGergor took home a UFC-record $3 million, it’s easy to see that both men want to settle the score with a third fight.
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Conor McGregor hobbled out of the octagon after avenging his loss to Nate Diaz on Saturday night. Nate Diaz attends the UFC 202 news conference at the MGM Grand hotel-casino on Wednesday, Aug. 17, 2016, in Las Vegas. Tripping McGregor in the final moments of the fight, he ended up on top, looking to catch the judges’ eyes with a strong finish.
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.
The two put on an action-packed fight in which McGregor came out strong and then hung on in a tiring, bloody slugfest. The two have exchanged words recently and Lesnar even challenged McGregor to a fight.
During his post-fight media scrum, Diaz said he wasn’t interested in anything but a third shootout with the UFC’s golden child. “The king is back – f-ck”.
“Now this trilogy is on my terms, come back down to 155 and we’ll do it”. “I came to this fight worse off than last time”.
“I don’t know. We’ll see”.
McGregor controlled the bulk of the second round with punches to Diaz’s face, and twice more forced his opponent to stand up after being knocked down. “They tried to say if I lose this one, I’m done”, the 28-year-old said.
Later in Round 2, Diaz found the energy to unleash a flurry of strikes, knocking McGregor down against the fence. “I’ve got to figure out what’s next, but right now, I don’t know what’s next”.
“I don’t think they’re going to do that – I mean how can they do that?”
The “Notorious One” came blazing out the gates using good leg kicks and crisp combinations at a measured pace to control the fight in the opening rounds.
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“Conor has to defend his title or make a decision to give it up or whatever he wants to do”, White said. As expected, he was able to cut Diaz, and Diaz was affected by blood in the eyes throughout the second half of the fight.
