Before Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) Featherweight champion, Conor McGregor, even made his professional mixed martial arts (MMA) debut (2008), Nick Diaz was 20 fights deep and already testing the waters in rival promotions like Pride FC. And he wasn’t just kicking asses like those of current UFC welterweight champion Robbie Lawler (knockout) and Pride FC poster boy Takanori Gomoi (historic gogoplata), but Diaz was dropping mics.
Here’s just a famous sample:
Let’s not even address his epic conference call opposite Georges St-Pierre. It’s the best. Ever.
Anyway, when the elder Diaz speaks, I always — ALWAYS — listen. So when he broke down the training of Conor McGregor, who will fight his younger brother, Nate Diaz, in a short notice Welterweight main event at UFC 196 this weekend (Sat., March 5, 2016) at MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada, I listen.
I also transcribe, since most folks around here are lazy (and it’s part of my job description):
“They give you a fight with the fucking new guy who is supposed to be the shit, but he ain’t working with nobody, he ain’t working with any black belts, has no legitimate sparring, has no legitimate trainer. Look at this guy [Richard Perez, Nate Diaz’s boxing trainer] — this is ridiculous here. You don’t have anyone in MMA on a level like this. You have a fucking guy, swinging a fucking pool noodle at you, smacking you in the face with it, trying to promote his own shit … it’s a joke.”
Ido Portal, Nick is talking to YOU. UFC has put out so many McGregor-inspired videos this week that it’s hard to pin down the exact one that Diaz is referencing. But, to watch episodes one and two of UFC 196 “Embedded” click here and here. Regardless, it’s great, and more than likely the reason “Notorious” has actually showed a decent amount of respect for the Diaz Brothers in this shortened promotional week.
Wouldn’t even surprise me if he has studied them both — inside and outside the Octagon — for many, many years.