https://youtu.be/AP1B0sSW704
During his appearance on a special edition of “The MMA Hour” with Ariel Helwani at MMAFighting.com, UFC contender Nate Diaz pointed out what most in the MMA community have been thinking all along regarding the rumors of a potential boxing match between reigning UFC Featherweight Champion Conor McGregor and former boxing pound-for-pound king Floyd Mayweather Jr.
As Diaz explained to Helwani on Wednesday afternoon during the special interview, which aired live on MMA Fighting and YouTube, all of the talk about McGregor vs. Mayweather is nothing more than a “publicity stunt.”
“I hear all this Mayweather-McGregor sh*t, and I feel like that’s just a big old publicity stunt to hide the fact that he got his ass whooped,” said Diaz. “It’s rumors somebody is letting out, because they’re both benefitting off each other’s fanbases and they’re both building off of it.”
Diaz continued, “They don’t care if it happens or not, they’re both winning right now from the talk even happening. That’s the truth about what’s really going. The media is working their way and they’re loving it. They’re probably having dinner together every night.”
As the talk of the McGregor-Mayweather subject continued, Diaz would also point out his belief that it’s simply a ploy by McGregor to use as negotiating leverage for their potential UFC rematch.
“That’s exactly what I think,” Diaz said. “Because every time I hear more about it, I get a call. I’m like, hey, I call your bluff. Fight that mother*cker then. I’ll be right here. I’m the only one out of the three of us that can say I’ll whip both of their asses in one night, because Conor can’t say that. Floyd definitely cannot say that.
“You just got boxed up. You didn’t get tapped out. He got beat up and shot. And I hear Mayweather saying [McGregor] wins most of his fights by fighting stand-up. I’m like, not with me. He was losing the stand-up part. He took a shot, that was his way out. I just think it’s all fake and phony, and people should recognize that. Let’s see that, Mayweather. I call your bluff. Fight Mayweather, mother*cker. Let’s see how that goes. I’ll be right here sitting back like, okay. And what’s going to happen? Mayweather is going to f*cking whoop his ass in a boxing match.”
Diaz wrapped up his take on the topic by talking more about the promotional side of the business, explaining that McGregor has been a lot of hype, while he has built his fanbase over the years mostly through his fighting in the cage without much help from the promotion itself.
“This mother*cker is on top of the world because the UFC wanted his ass in, and the whole Irish fanbase, and they gave him some push,” Diaz said. “They did that for him and got a little ahead of themselves, and probably didn’t realize that. But I did. They wanted me to fight him at UFC 200 a week [after UFC 196] or whatever, a couple months later, and I’m like, can’t I sit back for a year and a half and fight Dennis Siver and become the biggest draw and the biggest talk of the town? I don’t think they want any of that. Instead that start talking about Mayweather and McGregor, and this is the new biggest thing. I’m like, hold up, didn’t he just get his ass whooped two months ago?
“All I’m saying is, he’s getting pushed. They created that monster. They did that to him. My sh*t is off of straight realness.”