Conor McGregor managed to get his hand raised in his 170-pound rematch against Nate Diaz in the main event of UFC 202 on Saturday night, successfully avenging his lone Oc…
https://youtu.be/DUXcJpdn_f8
“And the winner, by Majority Decision is ….”
Conor McGregor managed to get his hand raised in his 170-pound rematch against Nate Diaz in the main event of UFC 202 on Saturday night, successfully avenging his lone Octagon defeat in what was one of the finest examples possibly ever of a fight living up to the hype.
Watch as Diaz and McGregor both wait to find out who was going to get the nod on the judges scorecards in the above video released by the UFC just minutes after their thrilling five-round battle in Las Vegas, Nevada on Saturday night.
Also included in the video are Joe Rogan’s post-fight Octagon interviews with both McGregor and Diaz.
For detailed round-by-round results of the UFC 202 pay-per-view, click here.
Seeking revenge for the brutal second-round submission he suffered at March’s UFC 196, UFC featherweight champion Conor McGregor finally squared off with rival Nate Diaz in the main event of tonight’s (Sat., August 20, 2016) UFC 202 from the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada. The fight lived up to all the hype and circumstance,
Seeking revenge for the brutal second-round submission he suffered at March’s UFC 196, UFC featherweight champion Conor McGregor finally squared off with rival Nate Diaz in the main event of tonight’s (Sat., August 20, 2016) UFC 202 from the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada.
The fight lived up to all the hype and circumstance, delivering a classic slugfest that McGregor took home by close majority decision. McGregor used a varied arsenal of leg kicks and straight left hands to batter the zombie-like Diaz, who somehow stayed upright to return fire and have the featherweight champ in big trouble in the middle rounds.
McGregor dug deep and won the fourth round, and even though he most likely lost the fifth, he ultimately took home the huge win. Many believe that Diaz did enough and should have gotten the nod, opening the door for a huge trilogy match in the future.
Watch the full fight video highlights of McGregor’s big win right here:
After months of buildup, Conor McGregor has his redemption.
The Notorious eked out a majority decision over Nate Diaz in the main event at UFC 202 on Saturday.
MMAjunkie tweeted out the scorecards:
McGregor started the bout with a more deliberat…
After months of buildup, Conor McGregor has his redemption.
The Notorious eked out a majority decision over Nate Diaz in the main event at UFC 202 on Saturday.
MMAjunkie tweeted out the scorecards:
McGregor started the bout with a more deliberate pace than he did the first time around, working kicks to Diaz’s lead leg and patiently countering with a precise overhand left to the head.
ESPN.com’s Brett Okamoto summed up the first round, scoring it for McGregor because of his control of the fight:
It was rinse, lather and repeat early in the second frame, as McGregor continued to tenderize Diaz’s lead leg with kicks and land clean shots to the head. He again floored Diaz early in the round with an overhand left but refused to engage his opponent on the ground.
The UFC showcased McGregor’s cross that continuously landed early in the bout:
However, a Diaz brother won’t go down without a fight, and shades of the first bout began to emerge in the latter half of the second round as Diaz upped his volume and started catching McGregor more and more.
The UFC passed along a combination from Diaz as he began pushing the pace:
The third round descended into an all-out brawl as McGregor’s energy dwindled, and Diaz used unrelenting pressure to take the round. Lance Pugmire of the Los Angeles Times considered scoring the frame 10-8 for the man from Stockton, California:
The fight took another turn in the championship rounds, as McGregor appeared to catch something of a second wind. His defense still suffered, but he was able to return fire with regularity, including elbows in the clinch.
Ariel Helwani of MMAFighting.com gave the fourth round to McGregor:
The fifth and final round was an encapsulation of the entire fight, as both bloodied fighters took turns landing big shots between deep breaths. Diaz punctuated the final round with a big takedown just before the final bell rang, bringing the epic fight to its conclusion.
Post-Fight Reaction
With all the buildup leading to this fight, plenty of people weighed in with their thoughts about the outcome.
Damon Martin of Fox Sports provided a statistical breakdown that really put the madness into perspective:
Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson took to Twitter to shout out to both combatants for putting on an excellent fight:
Anytime there’s a fight as close as this one, there’s bound to be controversy about the score. However, Chamatkar Sandhu of MMAjunkie passed along a list of media scores, the majority of which were for the eventual winner, McGregor:
Martin of Fox Sports went ahead and suggested a time and place for the threematch to happen. After that fight, there probably aren’t many people who would argue with that.
Coming up with an actual timeline for a possible trilogy fight might take some time. Sandhu also passed along the news that McGregor fought at least part of the time with a broken foot, which makes his performance all the more impressive:
Pablo S. Torre of the New York Daily News wasn’t surprised by that news:
Finally, Helwani took the time to congratulate McGregor’s coach on obviously having his fighter well-prepared in the rematch:
Impact of the Fight
The win added to the lore of Mystic Mac.
McGregor had already proved he’s the next great featherweight. His meteoric rise and dispatching of Jose Aldo established that, and Saturday’s win cemented his position as one of the sport’s pound-for-pound best.
There aren’t many fighters who can lose in the fashion McGregor did in his first encounter with Diaz only to come back with the proper adjustments to overcome a size, reach and grappling disadvantage.
This will serve to boost McGregor’s stock, which, by the way, was already at an all-time high despite the loss in the first matchup. According to Sandhu, McGregor set a new record for a disclosed purse for a UFC fight:
With his first UFC loss now avenged, the MMA world is McGregor’s oyster.
UFC President Dana White already laid out some groundwork to attempt to steer McGregor in a certain direction, pre-emptively declaring an ultimatum regarding the featherweight title, per Fox Sports: UFC:
McGregor has talked about becoming a multiple-division champion in the past, but it doesn’t sound as though he’s committed to going back down to defend his featherweight belt after Aldo beat Frankie Edgar for the interim belt, per MMAjunkie:
I’ve beaten everybody in the division. If Frankie had won that last fight, after all that he and his team were talking, it would have been set it stone: I’m going back down to shut that man up. But he got slapped around that fight – couldn’t do nothing against a guy I KOd in one shot. So I’ve just got to see it out, see what happens after this fight.
The bottom line is that McGregor is a man who’s all about the bottom line. If he believes going back down to featherweight will be the best business decision, he will. If not, he’ll chase whatever the next big-money fight is.
After his win over Diaz, it’s clear McGregor’s talent transcends weight classes. His ability to adjust after losing his first fight at welterweight is the kind of thing that makes a fighter great.
Regardless of how fans feel about McGregor, they’ll tune in to see his next pursuit of greatness. And he’ll continue to be paid handsomely for it.
UFC 202 may go on to set a number of records, but it already broke one. According to MMAFighting.com’s Marc Raimondi, Conor McGregor will earn the biggest disclosed MMA purse in the sport’s history at $3 million. His opponent, Nate Diaz, will earn $2 m…
UFC 202 may go on to set a number of records, but it already broke one. According to MMAFighting.com’s Marc Raimondi, Conor McGregor will earn the biggest disclosed MMA purse in the sport’s history at $3 million. His opponent, Nate Diaz, will earn $2 million, which makes up part of the biggest combined payday in a bout.
The disclosed payouts do not include any of the pay-per-view revenue either fighter may be getting, meaning McGregor and Diaz are likely making more money.
How much more? Unfortunately, that will remain a mystery.
It’s a considerable boost for McGregor, who became the UFC’s first fighter to receive a seven-figure disclosed purse at UFC 196, earning $1 million for his initial fight opposite Diaz. Diaz, meanwhile, received $500,000 for his win.
From a historical perspective, it’s a great increase over nearly all other purses. The biggest in MMA history for a long while was Andrei Arlovski’s $1.5 million payday at the 2009 Affliction: Day of Reckoning pay-per-view, which he main evented opposite at-the-time No. 1 heavyweight Fedor Emelianenko.
That record would stand until UFC 200, where Brock Lesnar made a disclosed $2.5 million for his fight with Mark Hunt.
While the headliners are getting big checks, the fighters on the undercard aren’t so lucky.
UFC 202 co-main eventers Anthony Johnson and Glover Teixeira will earn $135,000 and $65,000, respectively, with the winner doubling their pay. Donald “Cowboy” Cerrone is the fourth-highest-paid fighter on the card and will make a disclosed $85,000 to show, and another $85,000 to win.
In all likelihood, none of them will get a portion of any of the revenue generated from the broadcasts of the card.
Regardless of the outcome of the fight on Saturday night, UFC Featherweight Champion Conor McGregor will be setting a new UFC record for his Welterweight rematch against Nate Diaz at UFC 202.
Marc Ramondi of MMAFighting.com is reporting that “The No…
Regardless of the outcome of the fight on Saturday night, UFC Featherweight Champion Conor McGregor will be setting a new UFC record for his Welterweight rematch against Nate Diaz at UFC 202.
Marc Ramondi of MMAFighting.com is reporting that “The Notorious” one will earn a $3 million guaranteed salary for his 170-pound rematch against Nate Diaz at the UFC 202 pay-per-view event on Saturday night.
Prior to last month’s historic UFC 200 event, McGregor held the record for the largest guaranteed fight purse paid to a fighter in the UFC with a $1 million payday reported to the Nevada Athletic Commission for his first fight with Nate Diaz at UFC 196 back in March.
At UFC 200, WWE Superstar and former UFC Heavyweight Champion Brock Lesnar broke the record for largest guaranteed purse with a reported $2.5 million purse for his one-time-only Octagon return against Mark Hunt.
In typical Conor McGregor fashion, the Irish mega-star will bump Lesnar down to second place and reclaim the distinction in his very first fight since setting the original record when he attempts to avenge the loss he suffered to Diaz at tonight’s UFC 202 pay-per-view.
For his part, Diaz will be earning a reported $2 million purse for the fight, which is expected to break the all-time pay-per-view record this weekend.
For UFC 202: Diaz vs. McGregor 2 results, click here.
With only a few short hours left until tonight’s (Sat., August 20, 2016) UFC 202 from Las Vegas, Nevada, the MMA world waits with baited breath to see what will happen in the second fight of featherweight champion Conor McGregor’s long, strange rivalry with Nate Diaz. By now we all know what happened in the
With only a few short hours left until tonight’s (Sat., August 20, 2016) UFC 202 from Las Vegas, Nevada, the MMA world waits with baited breath to see what will happen in the second fight of featherweight champion Conor McGregor’s long, strange rivalry with Nate Diaz.
By now we all know what happened in the first fight at UFC 196, where Diaz filled in for then-lightweight champion Rafael dos Anjos on just 11 days’ notice to batter and submit “The Notorious” in the second round after losing the first round to several heavy blows.
But what followed after McGregor showed a surprising amount of humility, honesty, and class at the UFC 196 post-fight presser arguably has the ultra-popular champion fighting for a large chunk of his lofty fighting status. His short ‘retirement’ that ultimately lead to his removal from the originally scheduled rematch with Diaz at UFC 200, coupled with the strange, dangerous bottle-and-can-throwing incident at Wednesday’s pre-fight press conference suggest that Diaz might just be inside McGregor’s head. We’ll find out tonight, but at the end of the day, he just has to win in order to silence his critics.
Yes, he’ll always have the featherweight title he’s never defended, something that UFC President Dana White has gone on record saying he will do in his next bout regardless of what happens with Diaz tonight.
However, two straight losses to a fighter who’s being billed as a welterweight but is, in reality, a lightweight who while no doubt a top contender, has lost to many of the top 155-pound fighters in MMA, would obviously be devastating to the ridiculously lofty bar McGregor has set for himself with his nonstop trash talk. There will be excuses made, but the fact will remain that there just hasn’t ever been a UFC champion who is coming off two losses to the same opponent.
It would also lend McGregor’s frequent stinging tongue lashes much less weight, as it’s hard to get fans to take a fighter seriously who says they’re going to destroy everyone in their path while on a losing streak. Again, the featherweight fray that McGregor has by all accounts dominated since his UFC debut in April 2013 will always be there, but it’s still a matter of whether or not he can actually make that weight safely again. “The Notorious” has put on serious muscle mass for his move up to lightweight and then welterweight, and even his longtime coach John Kavanagh has stated he doesn’t want to see his prized fighter make the draining cut down to 145 again.
Case in point, check out how drained McGregor looks compared to the much more bloated form he was in at UFC 196:
That picture is quite a shocking contrast, and in an era where the health impacts of extreme weight cuts are being taken more and more seriously by the day, it might not be a good look for the sport’s biggest star to put himself through another drastic and taxing cut. The weight issue coupled with the daunting specter of a two-fight losing streak to Diaz not surprisingly makes tonight’s main event a bout with absolutely stratospheric stakes for the Irish superstar, and therefore, it’s a bout he must win.
The fight is also one that carries astronomical stakes for the UFC. With talent agency WME-IMG and their investors recently having bought the UFC for upwards of $4 billion in the midst of the most unpredictable run of title changes in UFC history, the promotion is in serious need of stars. McGregor, along with Ronda Rousey, is obviously their biggest one, so another loss would be devastating for his legitimacy and the new owners’ profit margins. Some rumors have surfaced that WME has already soured on their massive purchase, and while that speculation is just rumor, it wouldn’t be hard to suggest that they may have a serious case of buyers’ remorse were McGregor to lose again and leave them with a long list of champions who absolutely struggle to sell a pay-per-view on their own.
There’s most likely a path to victory for McGregor this evening, but with him predicting a second-round knockout of the iron-chinned Diaz, the high-volume five-round affair that will probably be required might not be what McGregor plans on implementing.
We’ll have to wait and see what transpires in one of the most intriguing MMA fights of the year (and perhaps ever), yet regardless of what goes down from the T-Mobile Arena tonight, the stakes are unquestionably high for McGregor, and in an unprecedented manner never before matched in the relatively young sport of MMA.
The exact same thing could – and should – be said for the UFC and its new owners.
After months of buildup, Conor McGregor has his redemption. 
