Nate Diaz drew the ire of Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) Featherweight champion, Conor McGregor, company president Dana White and just about every fighter on the UFC roster after the brash combatant declared that everyone competing for the promotion is on steroids.
See his outburst during the UFC 196 pre-fight press conference here.
Now, his boxing coach, Richard Perez, is backing his pupil’s comments, telling Submission Radio that he strongly feels “Notorious” is jacked on steroids.
“Oh I sure do believe that, heck yeah. Some guys, they get busted – and to be honest with you, I know McGregor has got to be on some kind of steroids, he’s pretty big. And then all of a sudden [he’s] jumping to 170? Yeah there’s no way, cause I mean, he was supposed to be fighting at 155. So if you think about it, he was focusing on training at 155. He only had two weeks to go. And all of a sudden he’s gonna jump to 170? So no, there’s something going on. But still, I mean, we’re still gonna fight and that’s all there is to it.”
He continues:
“Well, all I know is that he was supposed to fight at 155, and for some reason I don’t think he would have made the weight, because he was trying to go to 165 and then he went to 170. So think about it. If you see that, you would think he had two more weeks to go, he would be close to 155 and stay on that, you know, or go to 160. But he didn’t, he jumped to 170. So that’s kinda shady right there.”
Of course, McGregor quickly defended himself, warning Diaz to never put his name and steroids in the same sentence. And for the record, Conor has never failed a pre or post-fight drug test of any kind.
Still, you won’t convince the Diaz camp that the fiery Irishman isn’t living foul.
The time for talking and strong allegations will soon come to an end, though, as McGregor and Diaz — who filled in for an injured Rafael dos Anjos — will collide in the main event of UFC 196 on March 5, 2016 in Las Vegas, Nevada.
For more on that intriguing Welterweight bout click here.