Nick Diaz: Nate Would’ve Beat Conor If I Was In His Corner At UFC 202

Former UFC welterweight title challenger Nick Diaz believes that had the UFC allowed him to be in his brother’s corner at UFC 202 for his match-up against Conor McGregor, the outcome would have been different for his younger sibling.

Diaz believes that ‘one inch’ would have made the difference in his younger brother Nate’s majority decision loss to the two-weight champion in Las Vegas, and that he himself could have served as that inch had he been in Nate’s corner that night.

Recently speaking to Opie Radio (courtesy of MMA Fighting), Diaz stated that there were plenty of things going on in the fight that he would have called out, and had he been there he possibly could have set up a finish for his brother to capitalize on:

“Just one inch, that’s the difference between how that fight could’ve gone,” Nick said. “As far as I’m concerned, I definitely would’ve been that inch. … They just wanted to keep me out of there. They know that it would’ve definitely helped him out a lot.

“I was seeing things in that fight that I would’ve called and told him. I was seeing things that he wasn’t seeing, because I do these things and I know how they work out for me. It’s kind of like a formula, you know what I mean? And I’m like, hey look, this is what you do. Come the third and fourth round, I think if I would’ve been there, we would’ve been able to put it together and got that guy out of there.”

Instead of having Nick in his corner, Nate instead was advised by longtime training partner and fellow ‘Scrap Pack’ member Gilbert Melendez, as well as longtime boxing coach Richard Perez. While Nick credits Melendez for his great ability to corner fighters, ‘El Nino’s’ style of fighting is a tad different from his brother’s:

“The thing is, Melendez is there,” Nick said. “The thing about Melendez is, he’s great. He’s really smart. He knows what he’s looking at. But they’re training partners, and so they’re like kinda opposites stylistically, because he’s more of a wrestler and he goes on top. So the things that Gilbert would tell him to do is more of like what Gilbert would do, and what I would tell him to do is more of what he would do.

“I’m not saying that it wasn’t helping having Gilbert there telling him to do the wrong stuff — Gilbert wasn’t necessarily telling him to do the wrong stuff, he just wasn’t going to see the things that I was seeing. So that was kinda rough. It’s hard enough to watch being there, and I’m watching on TV, I can’t do anything. … It was rough. I thought he had [McGregor] out of there, for sure, at one point in time. The third round, I guess. I was like, there’s just no way you’re coming back from that.”

When asked what advice he would have given his brother had he been in his corner, Diaz stated that he would have not thrown punches at ‘The Notorious One’ at all, but instead tried to play with his mind inside the Octagon:

“I would’ve told him not to throw punches at that dude at all, because he’s going to sit there and watch you and try to counter everything,” Nick said. “So all you do is fake at him and flick at him and f*ck with him, and that’s how you do that. But he went out there and just, he just didn’t have it together in the first round, and I think I could’ve clicked him into the right mindset.

“Plus, me standing in front of him, fooling around with him and standing in front of him with my right hand forward — all three of us stand the same way, so he doesn’t have anybody else like that to kinda work with him, and I just think that it would’ve definitely helped out having me there a little bit.”

With McGregor and Diaz now holding one win over each other this past year a rubber match has been much discussed, however, the Irish champ has stated the third contest would have to take place at 155 pounds. If Nick is able to corner his little brother the third time around, do you believe the contest would go in the Stockton Boys’ favor?

You can check out Diaz’s full interview with Opie Radio here:

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