Who Won?
With any close decision, of course both fighter’s camps are going to claim they won. In this scenario, Diaz had already stated the UFC were keen to get him out of the limelight. The fight was indeed close, but was it a controversial decision.
Throughout the history of mixed martial arts, we’ve seen truly corrupt decisions handed down. Was UFC 202 a scene of this sort of dark crime? According to Diaz’s boxing coach Richard Perez, who spoke with Submission Radio, the UFC wanted McGregor to win, and the judges were never going to give it any other way.
Corruption?
“I feel that Nathan (won), but I knew they were going to give it to McGregor. I just felt that they were. And I knew that at the end – Nathan asked me and I said, they’re gonna give it to McGregor, because I figured they’d want a third fight. But I felt that McGregor didn’t win that fight. A lot of people know that. But I felt they did give it to him so they could have a third (fight).”
“I watched it when I came home. I came home and watched it four or five times already, and the judges were going for McGregor. I mean, you could tell. It’s obvious. And I figured, okay, they want a third fight. You know, a company just bought it out, they want to make more money. They just bought the UFC. If I bought the UFC, I would try to make it as best as I can to get a third fight, to make more money. That’s a money-maker right there. That’s a big money-maker – more than any other fight that’s happening now. So they would be smart to do a third fight.”
Smart Money
“You know and I know and the media knows that it was such an awesome fight, I mean, it was like a storm. Everybody’s telling me, I wanna see that again. They want to see that again. That’s gonna be the most big payday for both of them, and for the business, the new UFC people that own it. So if they’re smart enough, they would do it. They will set that up. There’s nobody else.”
“If Nathan goes and fights B.J. Penn or Georges St-Pierre or anyone like that, or even if McGregor (fights them), that’s not gonna be a money-maker. Because those guys haven’t fought in a long time and they’re not action fighters like Nathan fighting McGregor. If anything, Georges St-Pierre will take him to the ground and just hold him and just wrestle him around. And then he’ll probably beat him up because McGregor’s not good on the ground, so he’ll probably tap him out.”
“If I was the UFC owner, I would say let’s do number three again. After that, he can go back to 145 if he wants, or 155. That’s where they’re fighting at, 155 – which is good if they fight at 155, because if Nathan wins he can go for the belt. But that’s not what he wants. Just like McGregor, they want the money. They want paydays.”
