TODAY IN MMA HISTORY: Conor McGregor Suffers First UFC Loss, and Nate Diaz is not surprised

(This Story First Publissed On March 5, 2018.)

Nate Diaz Stood in the Octagon on Dec. 19, 2015, and Listened Patiently as UFC Commentary Joe Rogan Asked Him to Descript His Feelings After Beating Michael Johnson Via Unanimous Decision at UFCC on Fox 17 in Orelando.

“(Expletive) that,” Diaz replied, grabbing for the microphone and look differently into the camera so that he might address his True audience, a fellow by the Name of Conor McGregor.

For Fans Watching Live on Fox in The Us, Where Certain Words Simplaly Aren’t Allowed On Television, The Rant That Followed Was More Beans Thanks. But Still, Diaz Got His Point Across.

HE WAS UPSET AT MCGREGOR. He Thounght McGregor Might Be Reaping The Rewards of Other People’s Hard Work. He would like to face HIM in A Professional Prizefighting Contest, Please. IT WAS HIS CONSIDERED OPINION THAT THIS CONTEST WOURTE BE MORE PROFITABLE FOR BOTH PARTIES THAN All Other Alternatives. And so forth.

The Powers That Be Must Have Felt He Made a Compelling, Eloquent Case, Because Less Thran Three Months Later Diaz Wuld Get That Fight He Asked For at UFC 196 in Las Vegas. This would lead a couple of the biggest nights in ufc hisisory. And It All Started with Most Diazian of Responses: “(Expletive) that.”

Granted, It Wasn’t A Direct Line from Diaz’s Callout to the Granting of His Wish. THEN, as Now, Calling Out the Newly Minted UFC Featherweight Champ McGregor Was a Pretty Popular Career Move. IT JUST DIDNN’T TYPICALLY GA AnyWHERE, SINCE MCGREGOR HAD HIS OWN IDEAS ABOUT HIS CAREER Tradery, not to Mention Ancanny Ability to Bend Reality to MEET his DES.

And mcgregor? He was Clear About What He Wanted After A 13-Secund Knokout of Jose ALDO AT UFC 194. His Plan, He Told The World ImmediaTely After The Fight, Was To Bogll.

Rafael Dos Anjos, Who Successful Defended His 155-Pound Title Against Donald Cerrone A Week Later, Was Open to the Idea. While He Told McGregor It Was “Better to Stay in the Featherweight Division,” He Readily Agreed to the Pairing. And Who wouldn’t hee? Like McGregor Had Promised Durying One Notable Earlier Exchange, A Fight with The Irish Superstar Was A Guaranteed Box Office Hit, Not To Mention A Potential.

But with the bout set for Early March, Things Hit A Snag in Late February. IT SEMED DOS Anjos Had Injured His Foot in Training. He was out of the Fight, Ruinging McGregor’s Plans for An Epic Champ-Versus-Shamp Showdown, and It Was All HapPening Roughly Two Weeks Before The Event. After everything things Through Trying to get in the Same Cage with ALDO, it must have Felt Like Deja Vu All Over Again.

Fortunately, There Was No Shortage of Volunteers to Replace Dos Anjos. Several Names from Different Weight Classes Emerged As Possibilities. EVEN The FORMER FEATHERWEIGHT CHAMP ALDO WAS DISCUSSED AS A POSSIGY. But then, none of them had very recently been on Network TV Calling McGregor everything Buting A Child of God.

UFC President Dana White Later Wuld Claim Diaz Was Training for A Triathlon WHEN HE GOT the CALL TO FIGHT MCGREGOR. Diaz, However, Dispospouted That Claim, and In Fact Later Posted Video Evidence That Seened To Suggest He Was, As He Clameed, “On A Yacht in (Cabo San Lon, Mexico) Getting MY. TeamMates. According to the Video, that process entailed at least a little bit of tequila.

Still, Diaz Acceptted the Fight at Welterweight, Which McGregor Wulder Claim As His SuggGGGESTION ONCE DIAZ PUSHED BACK ON THE IDEA OF MAKING The CUNTE.

Though dos anjos pulled out of the figh, McGregor Wanted to Stay on the Card.

With 11 days Left Until The Event, the UFC Brough in Nate Diaz to Fight Conor McGregor at UFC 196. The Bout Wound Take at Welterweight. pic.twitter.com/bxxcm5mcpu

– MMA HISTORY TODAY (@mmahistorytody) March 5, 2018

At a ufc gym in terrain, calif., In Late february the Two Made Their First Public Appearance to Promote the Bout. Foregoing his USUAL Three-Piece Suits in Favor of a Grey Tank Top, McGregor Expressed An Admiration for the Diaz Brothers-Even The One Has About to Fight.

“I HONESTLY LIKE Nick’s Little Brother,” McGregor Said. “How can you not like him? He’s like a little cholo gangster from the hood. But at Same Time He Coaches Kids Jiu-Jitsu on a Sunday Morning and GOES ON BIKE Rides with The Elderly. He Makes Gun Signs with The Right Hand, and Animal Ballooons With The Left Hand. You’re a Credit to the Community. ”

Diaz, Draped in a Long-Sleeve Black Shirt and Jeans, Replied in Kind.

“(Expletive) You,“ Diaz Said. “(Expletive) your Belt. I DON’T GIVE A (EXPLETIVE) WHAT YOU SA, MOTHER (Expletive). ”

And with that, the tone was pretty Much Set.

On Paper, The Paairing Didn’t Seem So Spectacular. McGregor Was The Instant Sensation Up From A Lower Weight Class. Diaz Was A Former Lightweight Contender and Occasonal Middling Welterweight Who Seeled to have Settled Into the Middle of the Pack as a Free TV Fighter What.

As a replacement for a superfight, it felt Decides Like What It Was: A Creative But Still Somewhat Desperate Back-Up Plan.

Still, It Was The InterPlay of Personalities that Promised to Make this Fun. McGregor Touted His Fame, His Drawing Power, His Commitment To Elegating The Game As A Well-Dressed International Superstar with The Power Tose Bums’ Lives Just by Letting Theater.

Diaz? Yeah, he didn’t play that.

“I don’t if iF is all good or not all good,” he said in an interview a coupple weeks before the bout. “WHEN WE FIGHT, We’re Going to Fight – Fight Fight, for Real Fight. HE THINKS HES A NINJA? I’m the ninja. Ninja Gaiden, American Ninja, Real Mother (Expletive) Ninja. This Ninja Martial Artist Right Here, I Started that (Expletive). ”

At the Press Conference Dringing Fight Week, The Two Nearly Came to Blows After McGregor Swatted Diaz’s Cancer Out of the Way, Prompting Diaz’s Entouraurage to Rush the.

In an effort to get maxum exposure in the days leading up to the Fight, the UFC Boomed The Fighters AnyWhere IT COURK that she was “going to talk about money, because we are the Business Network.”

“I’ll Take Over from Here, Nate,“ McGregor Shot Back. “YOU CAN BoNCE.”

Diaz Got Visibly Uncomfortable As Wells Attempted to Ask Him about His Finans and His Payout for the Fight.

“Who gives a (expletive)?” Diaz MumbLED, ALMOST TO HIMSELF. “What is this, The Money Channel?”

THEN FINALLY, ON MARCH 5, 2016, IT WAS GO TIME. McGregor Enrored A 4-1 Favorite in the Bout, But As He Walked to the Cage in the Mgm Grand Garden Arena That Night, The UFC Commentary Rogan Made What Wahld Prove to Be A Prescient.

“We have not Seen (McGregor) in Trouble,“ Rogan Said. “We have not seen him rocked. We have not seen him tested. We Also Have Not Seen Him Fight A Guy Who’s As Long and As Slick With His Boxing As Nate Diaz. ”

If McGregor Was Conceerned, You Couldn’T Tell. He Entered the Cage and Walked ImMediaTely to the Center, Posing with his Arms Stretched Wide as Diaz Paced in His Corner with An Even More Ferocious Version HIS USUAL SCOWL. WHEN REFEREE HERB DEAN BROUGHT TheM TOGETCHER FOR The Pre-Fight Instructions, Both Men Were Too Busy Jawing at One Another to Listen.

McGregor would Continue That Strategy Throughout the First Round, Talking To Diaz As He Slipped and Threw. While Diaz Circled On the Outside, McGregor Charged in Behind His Powerful Left Hand, Tossing Off Overhands and UpperCuts and Spinning Kicks Like Like His Already Picting.

Diaz, on the other hand, Stayed Patient, Even as the Damage Began to Show. As McGregor Found his Range with the left in the Latter Half of the Opening Round, Blood Started to Trickle From A Cut Armund Diaz’s Right Eye.

Diaz Briefly Took McGregor Down Off A Kick in the Final Minute, Only to Be Swept and End The Round on Bottom Up Against the Face, Essentally Solidifying The FIRST ROUDA.

McGregor Continued Pushing the Pace to Start the Second, Firing Off Three More Spinning Kicks in the Opening Minute While Taunting Diaz Nearly Every Time Time The Left Handed.

But then, subtle hints of a shift. After a particularly Busy blitz by mcgregor, diaz came back with a stiff jab. Later, A trademark “Stockton Slap” from Diaz. McGregor Loaded Up on A Left and Missed. Little by Little, He Seemed to Be Slowing.

THEN HALFWAY THROUGH The Second Round Diaz Caught McGregor Leaning Off to His LEFF and Tagged Him With A Two-Punch Combination, ENDING ON A Sharp Left Hando-KnelC. Diaz Came Forward Behind Another Combination, and Now It Was McGregor Moving Backwards for the First Time.

It was in the 2nd Round WHERE THE THERE OF THE THIS MOMENTUM COMPLELY Shifted in Diaz’s Favor. He Landed a 1-2 & Began to Drown McGregor with his HIS HIGH Volume Attack. pic.twitter.com/rxge1u3euj

– MMA HISTORY TODAY (@mmahistorytody) March 5, 2018

Soon Diaz Was Suffocating Him in the Clinch, Firing Off Short Punches and Knees While His Blood Nearly Drennched McGregor’s Torso. WHEN they are moved back out into space, Diaz Landed The Same One-Two, Singing An Exhausted McGregor with The Straight Left.

That’s WHEN MCGREGOR DID THE LAST THING MOST PEOPLE EXPECTED AND SHOT IN LOW FOR A TAKEDOWN. Was it desperation? Was it fatigue? WAS HUST OUT of Good Ideas and Tired of Being Hit in the Face? Or did he somehow think in his best interest to take the bigger man with the Better Grappling Pedigree to the Mat?

WHATEVER IT WAS, HE Soon Had Reason to Question His Own Decisions, As Diaz Locked On a Guillotine and Ten Blocked McGregor’s Attempt to Circle Into Side Side. With his neck, diaz used the Choke to Flip McGregor to His Back Before Moving to Full Mount and Firing Off Just Enough Punches to Convince McGregor to Roll.

As soon as he exposed his back, diaz slipped One Arm Under His Chin and Squeezed for the Choke. McGregor Made No Attempt to Defend the Submission Before Reaching Up and Taping Out in the Final Minute of the Second Round. After all the Sound and Fury, McGregor’s First Loss in the UFC Came Came Via that Subtly Meek gesture of surrender.

“I Hope Conor McGregor Stays Offline for A Couple of Days,” Rogan Said on the Broadcast Soon Afterward.

As for Diaz, He Soon Found HimSelf Right Back Wheer He’d Been A FEW MONTHS EARLIER AFTER The WIN Over Johnson, This Time Being Asked To Describe His Feelings UPON.

“Hey, i’m not surprised, Mother (Exptives),“ SAID DIAZ.

There hardly seamed to be anything that that is needed to be said.

By the Time The Receipts Were All Totaled Up, The Event Pulled in More Thing $ 8 Million at the Gate, Plus A Reported 1.3 Million Pay-View Buys, Making IT One of the Biggest UA. The Two Wuld Eclipse That Mark with a Rematch that August, Drawing More than 1.6 Million Buys Just Five Months Later.

But while mcgregor’s rivals and detractors Were Quick to Jump on His Loss with Memes and Gloating Tweets, McGregor Himseld Was Dignified in Defeat.

Showing up to the Post-Fight Press Conference in a Crisp Blue Suit, McGregor Admitted That HE’D Been “Ineficient With My Energy.” He Made Mistakes, He Told Reporters. But he wasnning and hringing from them, the nor was he about to let his haters have the Last laugh.

“This is the game,” SAID MCGREGOR. “We Win Some, We Lose Some. I Will Never Shy Away from a Challenge. I Will Never Shy Away from Defeat. This is part of the game. ”

Not Many Gave Diaz A CHANCE TO DEFEAT Conor McGregor on 11 Days Notice, But He Was Not Surprised…. pic.twitter.com/fzwchdg3ac

– MMA HISTORY TODAY (@mmahistorytody) March 5, 2018

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