I haven’t heard Matt Serra this fired up since the time he declared war on all things French.
The former Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) welterweight champion went “ballistic” when Nate Diaz — friend and extended family of “The Terror” — submitted Conor McGregor at the UFC 196 pay-per-view (PPV) event earlier this month in Las Vegas, Nevada (replay here).
Here’s why, according to his conversation with Stephie Haynes:
“Not being a cock, but look at Conor. All the shit you talked, take a nap, man. It’s not like your arm was about to break. I understand you want your career and if it was a kneebar, you’ll be out for six months, but dude, if worst comes to worst, you’ll think you’re in your bedroom. That’s it. You’ll wake up like, ‘WTF,’ but everything will be alright. I was so fucking happy seeing Nate win. Don’t get me wrong, I enjoy Conor McGregor, but the shit where he went in on Nate about teaching the kids jiu-jitsu, now look, it’s one thing to be witty and this and that, but now you’re writing some shit, trying to be clever…you know what? You start crossing lines and your karma is not good, either. You start making fun of the guys teaching jiu-jitsu classes…he could be out in the hood doing dirty shit, but he’s in there teaching kids martial arts, you dumb fucker. How dare you. That’s fucking stupid. You want to make your money, make your money, but that’s stupid. That annoyed me, and I love the Diaz brothers, so when he (Nate Diaz) fucking lit him up, when he started landing, [laughs] I was going nuts. My oldest child does an impersonation of me: I was going ballistic at my in-laws. I was going nuts.”
McGregor was relentless with his pre-fight trash talk (sample it here).
Unfortunately, he was unable to back it up on fight night, but to his credit, “Notorious” took it on the chin and did not run from his high-profile loss. Instead, the Dubliner insisted he will come back “with a vengeance” when he returns at UFC 200 to defend his featherweight title.
How much trash is talked in the wake of his loss, remains to be seen.