4. Conor is Less Arrogant
Conor went into his fight with Nate at UFC 196 thinking that it would end the same way his fight with Jose Aldo did. It’s hard to blame Conor for being confident in that regard. He just KO’ed the 7-year champion of the division he was fighting in, that would make anyone a little arrogant.
So what happened? Conor came out and smacked Nate’s face repeatedly for a round and a half until he had completely tired himself out. Conor lost because he failed to recognize the possibility that he could hit somebody as hard as he hit Nate and they would keep coming forward.
This time Conor will fight to score punches and will conserve his energy. The result is that he won’t ever give Nate the opportunity to capitalize on his gassing out like he did in the first fight.
It’s not as tough Nate can’t be finished, Josh Thomson knocked him out with a head kick back at UFC on Fox 7, so it is not impossible. Considering the amount of times Nate will be hit in the face by Conor at UFC 202 it’s safe to say that Diaz getting KO’ed is a likely end to the fight.
