There wasn’t a shortage of fighters who jumped at the chance to step in to fight Conor McGregor in the main event of UFC 196 on March 5, 2016 in Las Vegas, Nevada, after Rafael dos Anjos was bounced from the bout with a foot injury.
Among the volunteers were Donald Cerrone, Anthony Pettis, and Urijah Faber, just to name a few. In the end, Nate Diaz was the lucky winner, as Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) president Dana White announced that a welterweight fight between “Notorious” and the Stockton slugger is what the fans wanted.
The kicker?
Nate never actually asked to be a last-minute replacement. According to Diaz, it’s what Conor and UFC wanted, as he revealed during Wednesday’s UFC 196 pre-fight press conference that company officials told him McGregor wanted to fight him in “Sin City.”
And only him.
“They’ve been calling me to fight this guy since he was supposed to fight Aldo the first time. They knew they were fighting me this whole camp, I’m sure. They put out a video of him talking shit about me at the MMA Awards like two weeks ago. Did you guys know something already? Who knows? But I don’t give a fuck, I train to fight everybody all the time anyway. It’s all good. They called and said ‘McGregor only wants to fight you.’ And they gave me a fuck load of money and I said I want more of that shit. How about that motherfucker? You think I’m just taking some fight? Fuck that, pay me. They called me, I didn’t ask.”
What makes that statement even more interesting is that Conor admitted to asking for a fight against Diaz.
If true, that pretty much explains why this fight was booked instead of going with the obvious choice of Donald Cerrone, who is already in fighting shape having competed just five days ago at UFC Fight Night 83.
And it just so happened to be at welterweight, as well.
That said, Diaz was very adamant a few months ago that he wanted to face “Notorious.” Which is why he jumped at the chance to take on the fiery Irishman on less than two weeks notice.