White: Diaz trilogy fight could ‘ruin’ McGregor
White says he doesn’t want McGregor to fight a “trilogy” fight with Diaz.
The problem with the rubber match is Diaz is a 170-pounder. He’s a massive guy. Conor is a very talented guy, he’s very, very good. Every time he goes out there he looks better… [But] we should have never done it in the first place. That’s what weight classes are for. They wanted to do it, we did it. They wanted to do it again, we did it again. They’re 1-1. There’s only so many of those wars you can be in in your career. It takes a lot out of you. Some guys go into wars like that and they’re never the same after it. Look at Meldrick Taylor when he fought Julio Cesar Chavez. He was never the same after that fight. We’ve had those type of fights too. I believe that Rory MacDonald was never the same after the Robbie Lawler fight. That fight ruined him. I don’t want to do that to someone special like Conor McGregor. It’s just not right.
Won’t answer UFC’s calls for less than $20 million
Diaz says the UFC hasn’t called him about any upcoming fights.
I’m only fighting at lightweight for a big fight or 20 million just to take the call. Until then, I’m just living my life.
Report: Diaz offered interim title fight with Nurmagomedov
With Tony Ferguson appearing to drop out of UFC 209, Anna Jane Kesington reports that the interim title fight with Nurmagomedov has been offered to Diaz.
Nate Diaz has been offered an interim title fight with Khabib Nurmagomedov at UFC 209. The fight was originally offered to Tony Ferguson, but he was asking for too much money.
Mayweather to Diaz: I’ll ‘put the finishing touches’ on McGregor
In a telephone call, Mayweather tells Diaz that he has the support of “The Money Team” and offer to “put something on his trunks” before talking about McGregor. Diaz:
I thought I won that second fight too. He’s trying to hide from me now.
Mayweather:
Hey, Nate, tell me what I gotta do. Do I gotta? That boy is … aw, man. I see what you did to him, now. I’m gonna put the finishing touches on him.
Diaz fined $50,000 for bottle throwing incident
Diaz is fined 2.5% or $50,000 of his $2 million purse from UFC 202 for throwing water bottles at McGregor during the fight’s press conference. He will also have to carry out 50 hours of community service. Despite Diaz throwing the bottles first, he receives a lesser fine than McGregor, who was fined $150,000.
Diaz says he will also get boxing licence
Diaz says he is going to follow McGregor and get a boxing licence.
I’m going to get my boxing license in Cali and Nevada. I tried to get out of my UFC contract years ago. I had guys try to buy out my UFC contract so I could box – years ago. But the UFC wouldn’t let me go. So I have been stuck in these contracts and stuff. Now [McGregor] is talking about this Mayweather stuff and it’s getting all this hype, and I’m like ‘Do your thing with Mayweather.’ But if they let him out to box, then I’m boxing somebody too – somebody mainstream on the same card. Or another card – whatever. But I’m not doing it for a publicity stunt, I’m doing it because I love the sport of boxing. I want to win, I want to win fights for real and get out of this MMA shit that I’m not even into anyway. I don’t think they want me in there anyway, so I might as well stay out.
Pushes for McGregor trilogy fight
Diaz posts to Instagram to remind McGregor that he beat him at UFC 196.
https://www.instagram.com/p/BNKmcxGhZpK/
Roddy: Woodley or Diaz ideal for next McGregor fight
McGregor’s striking coach says he would like to see him fight for a third belt, preferring Woodley or Diaz over Nurmagomedov. Roddy:
Maybe [Tyron] Woodley,. For me, for him to go up and compete for a third belt [welterweight], maybe Woodley. [Nate] Diaz again is another great one. I think it’s what fans would want to see. They want to see something special again, the Diaz fight again is special. The Woodley fight is special…You can’t really doubt Khabib at this stage. He’s a phenomenal grappler and a phenomenal wrestler. But I don’t know whether the excitement is there, you know? Obviously for Conor it’s about the pay-per-views. It’s about the money. Whether Khabib will hit the pay-per-views for him I just don’t know…He poses a different threat so it would be good to sort of work out what strikes are going to land on him. He can be hit as well, I will say that. He got hit a bit in his last fight.
McGregor had staph infection weeks before first Diaz fight
Rogan says a possible reason McGregor lost the first fight against Diaz was that he had a staph infection weeks before the fight.
The guy steps in, loses to Diaz, takes the Diaz fight on short notice-by the way, after a staph infection. Here’s something not a lot of people know, he had a pretty significant staph infection and was on antibiotics until like, I think two weeks before the fight. If you don’t think that drains your gas tank you’ve never had a staph infection, and you’ve never taken antibiotics. They’re brutal on your whole body. Your body is made up of all this shit you don’t consider to be you, but it is you, stomach flora is a real part of you. Your body is essentially an ecosystem, and when you have a staph infection, staph infections are dangerous as f-ck and people die from them. So they hit you with some heavy duty antibiotics, I’ve had staph twice and it’s not fun. The first time I had it, I took the medication and I couldn’t believe how I felt. So weird, I felt lightheaded, I felt weak, I was like ‘woah’. It’s super strong stuff. I was like ‘Wow, imagine this guy 2 weeks after that.
Talks about UFC 205, trilogy fight
Diaz talks about McGregor’s performance at UFC 205, saying the UFC is shutting him out.
It’s artificial. It’s good timing for him. They handed it right to him…It’s funny how they left me out of the picture. The fight went exactly as I expected…The UFC didn’t want to give me tickets to this fight…they wanted to keep me out the mix. I was up in in a club box. After the fight everyone turned around and is looking at me…They gave Nick Jonas my seat…Of course [I want No. 3]. I’m not begging for no fight. I don’t need to fight anyone. I don’t even need to do this interview…If they game me all that attention I would take this too…UFC knows that [Fight 3] is a bad idea…Congratulations to Conor, he did a great job, got the two belts.
Responds to Alvarez
Diaz responds in video to Alvarez comment that “everybody in the lightweight division has beat Nate,” reminding him that Diaz has previously defeated cowboy Cerrone and Conor McGregor, two men who in turn beat Alvarez.
https://www.instagram.com/p/BMuKbq6B8DB/
Responds to McGregor
After McGregor talks about his win over DIaz:
There was a lot of damage done to Nathan in that last fight. Even looking at his facial features, they are not the same so I know those close to him will understand what I’m talking about.
Diaz responds with an Instagram:
https://www.instagram.com/p/BLo-wiWDSf_/
Tells Nevada ‘good luck’ collecting fine
McGregor says that he’s not planning on fighting in Nevada any time in the near future, and that he has no intentions of paying the $150,000 fine. If McGregor doesn’t pay his fine or complete his community service, he could face a hard time getting a license to fight again in the state but from the sound of things that won’t be a problem.
I don’t see Nevada in my future, for the foreseeable future is how I see it. I’m free to do what I want. I’m good. I’m good. New York, New York. That’s what I think…I thought they might respect [me calling in] a little bit more. I owned up. I manned up. I’m here. I apologized. I’m not trying to blame nobody, although they fired the rounds off first. I didn’t think they would even go that route because I didn’t think this was like a real thing. Are they going to come and arrest me or what the (expletive) is that?..I wanted to give them the respect and I felt they would have respected that but they didn’t. So, whatever. It is what it is. Good luck trying to get it.
On Diaz:
I do not wish to see Nate get any more or any less than me. I don’t want to see either of us have something like this happen. But we’ll see. I don’t know. If they went that way on me I don’t know what way they’re going to go on him. He threw the bottle first, but I don’t wish he get more than me or anything like that. I just wish we’d get it sorted out and get on with it and carry on.
Fined $150,000 for water bottle fight
The Nevada State Athletic Commission fines McGregor five-percent of his $3 million purse ($150,000) for the water bottle fight with Diaz inside the MGM Grand in Las Vegas in August. At least one security guard from the hotel was hit with a bottle or can that was thrown by McGregor. He was also fined 50 hours of community service, to be served within six months. McGregor was on the phone from Ireland:
I just want to apologize for the incident, it was a very unusual incident that unfolded. I acted wrong and all I can say is I’m sorry.
Diaz’s hearing will be heard at a later date.
Responds to White’s weight comments
Diaz responds to White’s comments that he fought McGregor at 190 pounds:
Fuck them both. You know both those little bitches are afraid to fight me. That’s why they are fighting each other…And tell Dana I said get off Conor’s nuts. I left my room to that fight at 176 (pounds), so when I fought, I was probably 173. Quit telling people I was a monster to make him look good. I’ve been a lightweight my whole career…Eddie said I was next after Gilbert, then I called him a bitch in the lobby and he turned the fight down repeatedly until I beat Conor. Then he called every day asking for the fight. Bitch. What kinda fighters are these guys?
White: Diaz fought McGregor at 190 pounds
White says that Diaz was far heavier than measured at the weigh-in. Diaz weighed in at 170.5lbs on the day preceding UFC 202 and McGregor was 168 pounds.
The night of the fight Diaz comes in at 190 pounds. Now, Conor McGregor is [145-pound to 155-pound] guy and if you look at the wars he’s had with Diaz – you can only have so many of those wars in your career man. And it just doesn’t make sense. That’s why we have weight classes. It ended up being an amazing fight but you don’t want to keep doing that.
Calls McGregor-Diaz fight ‘a sparring match’
In a post fight interview after his 95-second win over Dustin Poirier, Johnston calls out McGregor and Diaz:
I’m just coming in here just showing people that I’m serious in this division. Conor McGregor and Nate Diaz getting paid that money and they’re out here scrapping and having a sparring match. I come to finish fights. I come for the kill. Pay me, baby, what’s up?
Schaub: Diaz took knockdowns to dupe McGregor
According to Schaub, Diaz claims that his three knockdowns when fighting McGregor in UFC 202 were premeditated, tactical tumbles.
I saw Nate at the grocery store, randomly, and he was saying that he was falling on purpose to dupe Conor. He goes ‘I knew the first three rounds were going to be tough – he is so fast – so when he hit me, the plan was to fall down and get him to follow me down. I couldn’t take him down, so the plan was to get him to follow me down there.’ That’s a very risky gameplan. But that’s from the horse’s mouth.
Facing fines, suspensions for water bottle fight
McGregor and Diaz are accused by Nevada State Athletic Commission of behavior “detrimental to a contest or exhibition of unarmed combat” due to their water bottle fight at the UFC Press Conference at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas. By comparison, Daniel Cormier and Jon Jones were fined 10 percent of their purses after they got into a brawl in August 2014 in the MGM Grand. Jones paid $50,000 as well as doing community service; Cormier paid $9,000 and had to do community service for his part in the fight. As McGregor and Diaz made far more from their fight the potential penalty is higher. An announcement on the hearing date has not been released.
UFC 202 broke PPV records
Sources say that the DirecTV numbers for UFC 202 were the highest in the promotion’s history. Current estimates have the show doing 1.65 million buys on pay-per-view, putting it slightly ahead of UFC 196, the first McGregor vs. Diaz fight, which was estimated at 1.6 million. Both would be ahead of the prior record set at UFC 100 for the second Brock Lesnar vs. Frank Mir fight UFC’s own pay-per-view orders through the Internet were believed to have also broken the record set at UFC 196. On the night, the show sold 12,657 tickets, and including late discounting, and there were 14,060 in the building. The live gate announced the night of the show was $7,629,010.
My numbers don't lie. https://t.co/xTatIEpuct
— Conor McGregor (@TheNotoriousMMA) September 7, 2016