Nate Diaz says Conor McGregor’s defeat to Dustin Poirier at UFC 257 was more a case of The Irishman underperforming rather than ‘The Diamond’ doing anything special.
In an interview with Ariel Helwani of ESPN, Diaz reflected on the UFC 257 main event, he said.
“I think he f****d up more than Dustin did anything good He was landing shots and it looked in the bag to me but he still makes the same mistakes he always has.”
Diaz went on to explain that he set the blueprint that has allowed Floyd Mayweather, Khabib Nurmagomedov and Poirier to pick up stoppage wins against McGregor.
‘I thought he did horribly [against Mayweather]; I thought he did everything that I and the other boxers thought he would do. He went in there, punched himself out and got knocked out; he didn’t learn from what happened when I fought him.
‘Floyd Mayweather watched the blueprint on how to beat him. When the fight started, that’s what he did, he made him punch himself out, because that’s not how Mayweather fights. He’d read up on him like I read up on him.
‘I didn’t think Conor did a good job at all. He’d just lost to me like that and Floyd went out here and pushed the pace and Conor took the bait.
‘Conor did that with me, that’s what first exposed him, then he did it with Mayweather.’
The Stockton, California native pointed out that McGregor has a tendency to push a pace he cannot maintain due to anxiety.
“He tried to make it last against Khabib, he took four rounds to finish him off; then he fought Dustin, he was dropping combinations on him but I think he was pushing the pace like he had it in the bag,” Diaz said.
“That happens because he doesn’t want to be in there, he’s too anxious for the kill because he wants out, he should have slowed it down a little bit.” (Transcribed by Daily Mail)
Do you agree with Nate Diaz? Did Conor McGregor “f*ck up” at UFC 257?