Nate Diaz defeats Conor McGregor at UFC 196

March 5th, 2016

Nate Diaz (19-10) surprised people around the world with his latest victory over Featherweight champion and Irish MMA superstar Conor "Notorious" McGregor (19-3).  The fight headlined UFC 196 after McGregor's original opponent Lightweight champion Rafeal Dos Anjos dropped out two weeks before due to a broken foot.  Instead, McGregor decided to continue with a replacement fighter, declaring that he would, "fight anyone, at any weight, at any time."

The UFC offered the fight to No. 6 ranked Lightweight Nate Diaz while he was on vacation following a unanimous victory against Michael Johnson on December 19th in which Diaz called out McGregor as someone he would like to fight.  For taking the fight on less than two weeks notice, McGregor agreed to fight at 170 pounds to officially be a catch weight fight.  This was seen as an enormous weight jump for McGregor who normally fights at 145 pounds.  Diaz fights at both Welterweight (170 pounds) and Lightweight (155 pounds).

McGregor out-boxed Diaz in the first round, opening up a gash above his eye which bled profusely.  Despite that, Diaz did not go down and took advantage of McGregor in the second round.  Diaz stunned McGregor with a series of punches, which led to McGregor attempting a take down on Diaz.  Diaz, a black-belt in Jiujitsu then set up McGregor for a rear naked choke which McGregor tapped out on.  All three of Conor McGregor's losses at the professional level have come via submissions.

After the fight, Diaz told UFC commentator Joe Rogan,"I'm not surprised", while McGregor admitted failure and vowed to,"take this one on the chin."

The two were set to fight again in July at UFC 200 until Conor McGregor tweeted in April that he was "retiring young".  McGregor exclaimed the next day that he would not actually be retiring but instead would debate his contract with the UFC in regards to his press requirements.  He exclaimed that he was not yet paid to promote and called his high profile media tour a distraction.

Dana White responded by pulling McGregor versus Diaz 2 off of UFC 200 and replacing the fight with Light Heavyweight title match Jon Jones versus Daniel Cormier 2.