Conor McGregor Hand-Picked Nate Diaz At UFC 196, But Was Warned

UFC featherweight champion Conor McGregor fell at the hurdle set in front of him at UFC 196, albeit at welterweight, as he got submitted in two rounds by Nate Diaz. The apparently glaring holes in the Irishman’s ground defense were exploited to no end by the Stockton bad boy, who made it look easy in sinking the rear naked choke in and forcing the quick tap from ‘The Notorious.’ For McGregor it seemed, it was backl to the 145-pound division for the next fight. Until the news broke last Friday.

UFC 200 is to feature the rematch between Conor McGregor and Nate Diaz, and once again at welterweight. Allegedly ‘The Notorious’ was eager to fight at 170 pounds again, although it probably favors Diaz, in order to even the score without doubt.

The originally scheduled bout between McGregor and UFC lightweight champion Rafael dos Anjos fell apart when the Brazilian champ broke his foot in training, and according to MMAFighting.com, the featherweight champion hand picked Nate Diaz to replace ‘RDA.’ Also according to the same report, former Ultimate Fighter rival Urijah Faber warned McGregor about Diaz’s grappling, and says that his defense showed he hadn’t worked on his Jiu Jitsu:

“I think it’s a tough fight for him to win, but he’s always got those heavy hands,” Faber told TMZ Sports this week. “Conor has some heavy hands. But the Diaz’s are known for taking a beating and coming back stronger.”

“I think it’s gonna be a good one,” Faber said. “I’m sure Conor wants that one back. I mean, he got whooped. He didn’t even fight the hands, man. I’ve been trying to tell Conor, you gotta work on your jits. Diaz is tough, man. A lot of people don’t know how tough Diaz is.”

“That’s exactly what Dana told me — ‘Hey, Conor wants to fight Diaz,'” Faber said. “That backfired. … I’m definitely a bad matchup for him, though. I have the most submissions in UFC history and he has a history of submitting.”

“Diaz is a more well-rounded fighter,” Faber said. “He’s just as big, if not bigger. Just a bad matchup.”

Will Conor McGregor even have enough time to improve his ground game enough to compete with a Jiu Jitsu black belt at UFC 200? Perhaps not, but what we do know about Nate Diaz is that he won’t pursue a ground fight, the tough headed ‘Cholo’ (as McGregor described him) is more than happy to trade hands.

Watch this space.