Ten days before UFC 196 in March 2016, the fight card lost one of its main event fighters. A lightweight title bout between then-featherweight champion Conor McGregor and lightweight titleholder Rafael Dos Anjos was scheduled to headline the event but a broken foot forced dos Anjos out of the fight.
Nate Diaz was vacationing when he got the call from the fight promotion about stepping in to face McGregor. Diaz accepted the fight and the rest is history. The Stockton, Calif. native looked back on handing the Irishman his first UFC loss on Out Cold with Chuck Liddell.
“We were chillin big time and kicking it. I already yelled for the fight and it wasn’t happening, so I was like, f**k this fight. I was kicking it hard and then they called and it happened,” Diaz explained. “I was like, alright, I’m not going to pass up the fight that I just yelled for. As it got closer I was like, sh*t, I haven’t been doing sh*t. So, I’m going to jog around the ring for 15 minutes and start at 15. I’ll go hard for 10 because it’s a 25-minute fight. I was like, alright, I’ll just jog around.”
When he accepted the short-notice fight, Diaz knew he didn’t want to lose to the brash McGregor. It had gotten personal.
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“A guy like this you can’t lose to because the sh*t that he’s talking especially, you know, your mom’s watching. Your girl’s watching. The people at home are watching and then you get your ass whooped by him you have to go back home to that,” Diaz said. “I can’t sleep with that. I can’t live with that, so we’re not going to lose this fight. Him and a few different people too…
“When someone’s trying to f**king just embarrass you in front of the world, they’re not the easiest. They’re the hardest fight to train for and get to but they’re the ones that turn out the best because it’s a real fight.”
In the fight, McGregor had success against Diaz early landing clean shots and leaving him bloodied. Diaz blamed it on the lack of preparation and the jogging around the ring training.
“Jogging around, that ain’t how I fight. Jogging around go me socked all up. That’s why I was bleeding and sh*t,” Diaz said. “About five minutes in I was like, okay, I ain’t doing that no more. Six minutes in, I’m not doing that no more. I started fighting like I fight and closing the distance and started wearing him down, breaking him down. When I started fighting normal, he’s starting to get his ass whooped. F**k the game plan.”
Diaz and McGregor rematched five months later at UFC 202. McGregor won via majority decision and the bout earned Fight of the Night honors.
