UFC 196 aint the first rodeo for the Diaz brothers, who have been known to trash talk and mean mug opponents their entire careers.
But for Nick and Nate Diaz they don’t just talk the talk. They walk it as well. Which is perhaps why they’ve been in their share of brawls over the years, from a cage brawl with Jason “Mayhem” Miller in Strikeforce to a scuffle with Khabib Nurmagomedov at World Series of Fighting.
That’s the reason it isn’t surprising that Nick Diaz and his “209” entourage had a plan for the staredowns at the UFC 196 press conference on Thursday (March 3, 2016). As McGregor was getting ready for the staredown with his opponent Nate Diaz, he taunted the entourage standing nearby (see the TMZ Sports video above).
“What the fuck are you looking at? I’ll strangle you in a heartbeat. And you as well you little juice head,” he said, turning to Jake Shields.
“I’ll slap the shit out of you,” came the reply.
Later in the video, Nick is overheard talking to Nate about a gameplan for the staredown.
“If he even fucking touches you then it’s on,” he says, as Nate nods.
The “touch” came in the form of a punch to Diaz’s wrist, which sparked an immediate brawl on the stage. The entourage struggled to get at McGregor as the Irishman’s eyes smiled while taunting, “what’re you gonna do?”
Although McGregor seemed to get the better of that one, Diaz certainly won the staredown at the weigh-ins the next day (Fri., March 4, 2016), getting his opponent to flinch and sparking another near fight.
Phew. Thankfully we’re only hours from this fight going on. I can’t imagine a full camp of these two despising one another.
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