Nate Diaz to step in and face Conor McGregor at UFC 196 after RDA injury; bout will take place at 170lbs

http://www.mmaweekly.com/nate-diaz-steps-in-to-face-conor-mcgregor-at-ufc-196


Not sure why it's at 170. Maybe Diaz was too heavy?

Whatever. This is the best fight out of all of the possibilities, IMO.

easy win for connor.

Yeah. McGregor has got to be favored HUGE in this fight.
170 makes no sense to me, but whatever.

I dont think its that easy of a win for Conor. Diaz has excellent boxing, a granite chin, excellent conditioning and cardio, and probably the best BJJ in his division. Conor clearly has speed and power over him but if Diaz can get it to the ground this should be an interesting match.

Im more excited about this fight than the rda fight.

I just wish they had a few months to trash talk it up.

McGregor is looking fucking huge. Like he's put on 20 pounds in muscle since the Aldo fight.
This could be good (he'll need to get bigger to fight at LW/WW) and bad (cardio) for him.

It also makes me think he has no intention of ever defending his FW belt.

Piddy Pat punches from Diaz will NOT seal the deal. Connor will overwhelm him fight will end early in the second round.

If Diaz goes with his BJJ i think he can pull this out but if he decides to stand and trade (which is what he will probably do) I see Diaz getting knocked out.

stock wrote:

It also makes me think he has no intention of ever defending his FW belt.

Yeah I've kind of been wondering the same thing.
He's been burning hot and fast, and I think he's just trying to strike while the iron is hot by bouncing around like this, and might not even ever defend his FW belt.
If he keeps going down this path, I wouldn't be surprised to see him retire after his first UFC loss, no matter what belt(s) he still holds.

more and more im buying into the conspiracy that this was planned. Now Frankie is coming out saying that the way he was treated, thrown under the bus is unfair, that he feels like they are playing him and never had the intentions of giving him a fight against connor. He said yes to fighting him in the summer or whatever but they didnt give it to him, even though it was on two weeks notice.
Nate is a very winnable fight for connor, there is no way in hell he is taking Connor down and he is too slow to catch him with strikes.
Seems like that was the plan all along, make Connor look like a hero and give him a fight he can win at the weight where a strong grappler can overwhelm him by sheer strength alone.
if Nate comes in the great shape he was in the last time, ill be questioning this even more. He is never ripped in between fights

Meh Edgar would never have stood much of a chance. Connor is going to go where the money is and an Edgar fight isn't as big as moving up.

But .... all is settled in the ring .... and so far McGregor keeps settling things in the ring.

conor does look huge. its crazy how much bigger he got in a short period of time.

I think you guys are under estimating diaz. he has fought guys with speed before and guys with power and the guy has been fighting top competition his entire career. I know conor kod aldo in 3 seconds but what would have happened if that fight went longer? we don't know. conors short career with the ufc is still somewhat of a gray area. yes he looks amazing against the fighters he has faced but its all with a what if ( top 10 guys aldo, mendes ) what if mendes had a full camp and didn't gas, what if aldo didn't take that punch.. I'm not 100% sold on the fact that conor McGregor is going to just start destroying every fighter in the fw, lw, ww divisions. unfortunately, if he beats diaz it will be another what if because he took the fight on 10 days notice. I am not knocking conor because 4 of his 8 ufc fights they had opponent changes and that is just as tough for him as the other guy but I want to see him fight a fight with a top 5 guy who had a full camp and no opponent changes for conor then id be able to really judge him.. however, I hope diaz uses his body frame to set things up against him. he is 6 feet tall and conor is 5'8 I'm sure this will have some what of an impact. is conor going to be as fast at 170 as he is at 145? I doubt it. im sure he will be much more powerful. can diaz take him down? will conor be able to get inside and connect with a shot that drops him like Thompson did? there are a lot of questions here and I hope this fight goes for a few rounds.

I'm really interested to see how conor attacks diaz and what his plan is to set things up. those cat punches are effective and could throw a person off and I think diaz boxing is just as good as his bjj.

I'm happy they put diaz in but I wonder why its at 170. I wonder why they didn't choose alvarez or khabib who both campaigned heavy for this fight.. is ufc trying to protect conor from wrestlers??

Krieger wrote:

Meh Edgar would never have stood much of a chance.
.

I couldn't disagree with you more. frankie would be a huge problem for conor wherever the fight goes. I personally think frankie finishes conor in 2 rounds.

I agree that edgar is a huge problem for connor....hes a good boxer and good wrestler.......lets not forget what connor looked like in the 1st with mendez.....he didn't have much from his back.....if nate plays it smart he takes it down and Connors got to get past nate 1st but frankie is trouble for him too...

does diaz have the ability to take people down? I cant recall him ever shooting in on someone..

not saying nate is great at getting it there but he can control the ground game imo......just has to get it there.......but he also has good boxing soooooo could be an interesting fight

drainbamage wrote:

I am not knocking conor because 4 of his 8 ufc fights they had opponent changes and that is just as tough for him as the other guy but I want to see him fight a fight with a top 5 guy who had a full camp and no opponent changes for conor then id be able to really judge him.

Aldo.
FW champ. Arguably P4P #1.
KO'd in 13 seconds.

Doesn't matter much about Edgar unless he moves up (which can't happen). He'll never see McGreggor again and we will all be left with mere speculation and assertions based on our own opinions.

Triggerman99 wrote:

drainbamage wrote:

I want to see him fight a fight with a top 5 guy who had a full camp and no opponent changes for conor then id be able to really judge him.

Aldo.
FW champ. Arguably P4P #1.
KO'd in 13 seconds.

key words see him fight a fight.

13 seconds isn't a fight. I really hate to use this terminology but he got caught. mendes was a fight. aldo wasnt

Yeah I know what you're saying, but I hate to write fights off like that because one fighter "just got caught". It just seems like it minimizes what actually happened. I mean, McGregor didn't accidentally throw the punch that got the KO. lol! He aimed at a spot on Aldo's chin, Aldo didn't evade the punch, it landed, and he got KO'd. He lost the fight, and McGregor won the fight.
I just can't really justify disregarding one guy's win over another due to the fact that he beat him quickly and cleanly. That just doesn't seem fair to me. The one exception I can think of is Silva/Weidman 1, but that's because Silva got caught while acting like an idiot, not while engaging and just getting clipped by a cleaner, faster strike.
Now, with all of that said, I would agree that we the fans in such a case deserve to see a longer fight because we didn't really get our money's worth, so to speak, and want to see something more resembling a back and forth war, but that's not the same thing as disregarding or cheapening McGregor's victory by implying he wasn't actually the better man that night.

if mcgregor wins, he will fight lawler next. This is just a warm up against a taller striker, though not as powerful as lawler

Yep, I think that's where this is going.
If he walks through Diaz, the UFC will try to make this happen.

I don't like it, but whatever.

Yeah I just don't get the whole WW thing for McGregor. I don't really even love the idea of him trying to get the LW, but WW is just retarded to me.
I don't really blame McGregor, because he's just trying make as much money as possible. Dana, on the other hand is either a bitch for letting McGregor call all the shots and do whatever he wants, or stupid for thinking that somehow in some universe it's a good idea have one fighter hold 1/3 of all of the belts.

they are putting all their eggs into one basket and i cant see how this helps dana or conor. yes conor will get paid a shit ton of money as he should BUT lets say he wins the LW belt and the WW belt. You will have 1 champion holding 3 belts at one time and could you imagine how much that would hold up each division.. that would be ugly. god forbid conor got injured. On the other hand if conor gets past rda for that belt then lets say lawler mauls conor, then conor faces rda again and lets say he loses, then its back to fw and a great possibility that frankie takes the belt from conor. if that happens you have what many would consider a flash in the pan. UFC's FW, LW, WW divisions are packed with probably the best wrestlers in MMA and we saw what happened with Mendes. I like Conor and i want him to win but i dont like his chances after diaz. As much hype as there is behind Conor im not completely sold on him as the best fighter he is portrayed as.

Conor is bigger than the UFC and he calls the shots. he demoted Dana and Dana cant do shit about it.

Conor knows if he walked away from the UFC they would be hurting pretty bad.

I would love to see conor negotiate with Bellator. could you imagine the amount they would pay for him?? That would be crazy money.

Yeah that's what I'm saying, it's a terrible idea for one fighter to hold 3 or even 2 belts, I don't care how popular he is.
And I think the problem is that Dana is a bigger fan than anyone of Conor's, and he thinks everyone in the world would absolutely love the idea of him holding as many belts as possible. Of course, Dana also thinks all of the fans are moronic sheep and will like whatever he tells us to like.
I'm a big Conor fan, and while I don't want this train derailed, I'd like to see it slowed down exponentially.

i just rewatched some of his fights and have to say that with sober mind, he is not even the greatest striker in ufc. He lacks defense.
Obviously his wrestling defense in not great, he defended Mendes by sheer strength, but what is going to happen when he is not the stronger guy.
But now, i see that his striking heavily depends on precise offence. He is an offensive striker and tends to miss shots, and again, survives because he is young and shots from featherweights are not that powerful.
He has gotten this invincible aura now, perpetuated by media and himself, but a couple of clean shots from lawler will wake him up