Joe Rogan Discusses Conor McGregor vs. Nate Diaz 2

The past year has seen some serious changes in the landscape of the UFC’s most marketable stars. The promotion had poured money in to UFC featherweight champion Conor McGregor and former women’s bantamweight queen Ronda Rousey in an attempt to elevate their status and thus bring in solid pay-per-view numbers. It certainly worked as, up until her UFC 193 loss to Holly Holm, Rousey was without a doubt the biggest attraction in the UFC.

As it turned out for both ‘Rowdy’ and ‘The Notorious,’ the walls that had been built by their dominant performances in the octagon and brash antics in the media soon came tumbling down. For Rousey it was the harrowing knockout loss to Holm that sent her in to a spiral of depression and self doubt. She is yet to return to the octagon after her first pro defeat, recently electing for surgery and further postponing the potential UFC comeback.

McGregor’s stumble came in the form of a UFC 196 submission loss to Nate Diaz, one that would halt the promotion’s future plans for a superfight with Rafael dos Anjos or Robbie Lawler and also put the 145-pound title on hold. Opting to request an immediate rematch at UFC 200, at welterweight once again, it wouldn’t be long before the Irish star would go in to his own media meltdown, albeit far less serious than Rousey’s breakdown.

After pulling out of the UFC 200 presser in California, McGregor was taken off the card all together, and proceeded to go full blown ‘Notorious’ with a social media tirade that would last for weeks. Ill-founded rumours of a boxing match with Floyd Mayweather would swirl before the announcement of McGregor’s rematch with Nate Diaz was announced at UFC 199.

One man who’s had front row seats for the highs and lows of both McGregor and Rousey is UFC color commentator Joe Rogan. Along with Conor McGregor’s loss to Nate Diaz, Rogan gives his opinion on the rematch at UFC 202 and points out where Rousey went wrong in the Holly Holm fight.

Skip to page 2 for Rogan’s opinions on McGregor vs. Diaz 2 and Ronda Rousey…

continue…

During a recent appearance on his JRE podcast, UFC commentator Joe Rogan broke down what went wrong in Ronda Rousey’s crushing loss to Holly Holm at UFC 193.

Transcribed by yours truly:

“These themes play themselves out over and over again. The traps are there, but they just keep going for the candy and getting caught. The Hollywood traps are always there for stars of boxing and MMA. Look at Tommy Morrison, everyone was saying he was going to be champ, he was in the Rocky movies on the red carpet, and it becomes this whole thing. Then he gets knocked out by Ray Mercer. He’s hanging with Stallone, they’re probably doing blow and banging hookers, allegedly,but it becomes this Hollywood trap.”

“Ronda is a giant superstar. She was this undefeated women’s fighter, she was crushing all these contenders, then all of a sudden all these movie deals start coming out. Books start getting written, TV show appearances, and all these traps they steal your focus away from fighting. Like ‘I’m good enough to get by without all that focus,’ but there’s no way because your opponent doesn’t have all those traps, they have an advantage.”

“There’s levels to everything, you can’t deny that, and for her to think she could treat Holly Holm, a world class striker, the same way she could bully Bethe Correia who is slow and awkward and not that athletic, that’s just madness. That’s what happens when you get so absorbed with this idea that you’re special. This game doesn’t give a f*ck about your charisma, how many times you’ve been on ‘Entourage’ or how many movie deals. This game does not give a f*ck.”

On McGregor vs. Diaz 2

“(Nate) was in shape, but he just wasn’t in the shape that he’s going to be in when they have a rematch, and that’s a big f*cking problem for McGregor. What Nate said ‘If I had a camp he wouldn’t have f*cking touched me,’ in the second round when he started loosening up, Conor was just dead. Diaz is sparring with guys like Andre Ward and Joe Schilling. These guys are sparring with Nate on a regular basis, the Diaz brothers are tough f*cking dudes.”

“What’s fascinating for me is that Conor wanted to just jump in there again and just run it back, that’s interesting. The emperor (McGregor) was stripped down. Now he’s exposed, so what do you do? You want to make money? The time for a rematch is now, when I say exposed I don’t mean he’s not talented, but he’s human and he can be beaten. But then he goes on Twitter saying stuff like ‘the first eight minutes were easy,’ hmmm. That doesn’t matter, the last three were a lot worse, you got f*cked up man, you gotta accept that.”

“I think stylistically it’s a troublesome fight for (McGregor). Nate’s grappling is a world away from Conor right now, his cardio is insane and he is so tough, so where is Conor shining?”

Enjoy the full segment on McGregor vs Diaz 2 right here: