Nate Diaz was getting battered in round 1 of his short notice fight against Conor McGregor, the Irishman looked like he was on his way to his first victory at 170 lbs. McGregor unloaded hard shot after hard shot, but Nate Diaz refused to go down. Fast forward to round 2, and Diaz lands a solid 1-2 combination that put McGregor on wobbly legs. It was the beginning of the end, and Diaz poured it on before finishing the featherweight champ with a rear naked choke.
Based on his own experience in dealing with the UFC brass, Diaz thinks that the company is giving preferential treatment to their biggest star.
“I lost plenty of decisions and I’ve never got a rematch to this day, so that’s crazy.” Diaz stated, “Conor got worked over and now they’re saying rematch, which makes sense, I understand that. I just think it’s funny because it’s like, Jose Aldo didn’t get a rematch.”
It’s true that the Stockton native has never received an immediate rematch after any of his UFC losses. The lone rematch on Diaz’s record is a TKO victory over Gray Maynard, which avenged a split decision loss from 3 years prior.
Is the UFC giving McGregor special treatment? Not necessarily, but they are going with the biggest fight for their golden goose. We missed out on a lot of the hype for this matchup the first time around because of Diaz stepping in on late notice. With more than 10 days to promote this fight, the UFC will surely be able to build this fight up for the main event for their marquee UFC 200 card.
Diaz still has his eyes set on a rematch of his own. Rafael dos Anjos holds the lightweight title and a unanimous decision victory over Diaz in 2014. RDA expressed interest in that fight, but he will have to wait until after UFC 200 for his next opponent to be determined.
