Miesha Tate, who sat alongside Conor McGregor and Nate Diaz for the UFC 196 pre-fight press conference, doesn’t think the Irishman’s words affected Diaz.
There was no calm before the storm for UFC 196. Conor McGregor and Nate Diaz, who headlined the mega-PPV on March 5th, went to war at the press conference and inside the Octagon.
The Irishman unloaded some of his finest verses at Diaz — “he makes gun signs with the right hand and animal balloons with the left hand” — but the Stockton product endured McGregor’s trash talk on-stage and weathered his onslaught of left hands in the cage.
Miesha Tate, who captured the women’s bantamweight title after choking Holly Holm unconcious in the co-main event, was caught in the crossfire between McGregor and Diaz and believes there was a subtle “energy shift” prior to the fight.
“I feel like Nate just didn’t really listen to anything that Conor had to say,” Tate said on The Fight Network (h/t MMA Fighting). “It was kind of in one ear and out the other. If he did listen to it, it was really just to make an argument back. Nate just was confident in himself. I felt like I could sense the energy shift from Conor to Nate in the confidence that Nate had.”
Things escelated and almost got out of hand when “The Notorious” struck Diaz’ hand at the staredown, which prompted members of “Skrap Pack” and SBG Ireland to rush the stage.
“Cupcake” feels none of McGregor’s antics fazed Diaz, and says the UFC featherweight champion’s trash talk perhaps worked against him.
“It just didn’t seem like the smack talk was fazing him at all,” said Tate, who won the UFC women’s bantamweight title from Holly Holm one fight prior. “I wonder if that made Conor feel a little bit different, because Nate is a totally different fighter than anything that he was preparing for before that fight.”
On fight night, McGregor busted up Diaz with a series of trademark left hands in the opening round but, similar to the energy shift at the press conference, the Cesar Gracie Jiu Jitsu fighter gained momentum in the 2nd round and eventually secured a rear-naked choke to pull off the upset.
Although it was expected that McGregor would move back down to featherweight to defend his title, Ariel Helwani recently reported that the UFC are targeting a welterweight rematch with Diaz for UFC 200 in July.