Conor McGregor’s loss to Nate Diaz in 2016 came as a shock to many, and it came as no surprise that the organisation acted quickly on making the rematch.
The casual fan probably didn’t see it coming, as the Notorious did a fantastic job of making fans believe the hype and that he was invincible, and you probably couldn’t blame him either after a string of impressive performance inside of the Octagon, such as his win over Chad Mendes and a 13-second knockout over Jose Aldo.
UFC 196 LOSS
The Stockton native stopped him in his tracks at UFC 196, and it was rather surprising as he was brought in late after Rafael dos Anjos pulled out of the lightweight championship clash.
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Plenty of stories emerged shortly after regarding how adamant the Irishman was about making the rematch happen before taking any other option.
Now, his coach John Kavanagh has explained just what went down after the fight, and revealed how they tried to talk him into defending his featherweight championship, or even fighting Nate at 155-pounds instead.
He wasn’t having any of it and explained how he yelled at UFC president Dana White over the phone to make it happen.
YELLING AT THE BOSS
Speaking at a Q&A in Sydney, Kavanagh explained: “We said to Conor afterwards, ‘What do you want to do next? They’ll still give you the lightweight title if you want.’ And he was like, ‘No, I want to fight Nate.’
“And in my head, I’m thinking, ‘Why do you want to fight him again? He is terrifying.’ When I was in the corner and you just see Nate plodding forward, and Conor has really nice technique on his hands and clearly has a very hard punch and Nate could just take them and be like, ‘What b***h?’
“So that was one of the moments I just had to tip my hat to him [McGregor], what courage and bravery that took.
“I was there the following day and he was screaming on the phone to Dana and Lorenzo [Fertitta], ‘You put that f***ing fight together!’ and he was not letting go of it.
“He wanted that challenge and he pursued it and he made the changes. The training we did was sickening, all fighters like sparring and all fighters like rolling, but making weight and getting that insane level of cardio – that’s the part that’s not as fun.
“And to be with him during those times and to see what he put himself through…and then to go and face someone that to me is like in a comic is his nemesis.”
You can say what you want about McGregor not defending championships and ducking opponents from the UFC, but you have to admire his determination to avenge a loss that was clearly eating away at him.
What do you make of Conor McGregor’s antics to secure a Nate Diaz rematch? Have YOUR say in the comments section below.
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