In the aftermath of the blockbuster UFC 196 event from Las Vegas, Nevada, featherweight champion the “Notorious” Conor McGregor sited fatigue and inefficient use of energy as the catalyst in his shocking submission loss to late replacement Nate Diaz.
McGregor, competing two weight classes above his usual home at 145-pounds, appeared to have tired himself out by throwing heavy leather early on in the bout.
Diaz’s teammate, Joe Schilling, recently spoke on the matter, saying that any professional would have known better than to use McGregor’s perceived method:
“You have 12 days’ notice to fight five, five-minute rounds. There is no way that any consumate professional is going to go out there and blow his wad in the first round – unless you’re Conor McGregor and you go out there and blow your wad in the first round,” he told The MMA Underground‘s Jonathan Shrager.
Continuing on, the world class kickboxer confirmed that Diaz’s game plan, which of course ended up being successful, was nearly the polar opposite to that of the Irishman’s:
“So, Nate’s game plan was to go out there, not get knocked-out, but not waste any energy, and pick up as the rounds went on, because you have to go five rounds. You look at Nick and Nate’s style of fighting – they don’t ever do that well in the first round. They set a pace and then they drown you in it and then by the third, fourth round, guys are shooting for takedowns because they can’t stand getting hit anymore.”
Diaz was able to exploit what many had felt had been McGregor’s weakness all along: the ground game. With the two now set to headline July 9’s monumental UFC 200, Schilling feels as if the rematch will be more of the same, although Diaz will be in even better shape this time around:
“I think that’s exactly what happened in the fight, and I think going into another fight thinking that Nate’s not going to be in better shape and come out with an even harder pace in the first round,” he continued.
“I think it’s going to be the same fight. I think it’s so obvious the wholes in Conor’s game, they were all over the place. I think the skillset that Nate has is far superior to Conor’s and Nate having a full training camp is just way different.”
Despite McGregor typical competing at featherweight, and Diaz being a natural 155 pounder, the rematch will once again take place at welterweight, a sign Schilling uses to accuse McGregor of being on steroids, an accusation Diaz has already made:
“If we’re going to talk about weight-gains and why he would want to stay at that weight class I don’t think it’s going to be that different when Nate talks about how you’re on steroids,” he began.
“Now, you can’t get back down to that weight class, you’re stuck at that weight division because you got on steroids, but we’ll wait for Nate to say that, not me.”
This isn’t the first time the “Notorious” one has been called out for possibly cheating, but his UFC 196 drug tests did indeed come back clean.
Do you hold any truth to these statements, and how do you see UFC 200 playing out?
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