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Georges St-Pierre: Nate Diaz bullied Conor McGregor in their first fight
Georges St-Pierre watched Conor McGregor and Nate Diaz duke it out at UFC 196 back in March, and according to the former welterweight champion, it’s pretty easy to see why “Notorious” walked away with his first UFC loss.
In an interview with Bloody Elbow, St-Pierre says that McGregor is a great fighter, but he ran into a fellow bully, and ended up getting bullied, himself:
“Yeah, the way I see it is McGregor and Nate Diaz are both ‘bully’ fighters, and the worst thing that can happen to a bully is when the tables get turned around and he gets bullied himself. That's what happened to Conor McGregor, that's why he lost that fight. Conor McGregor used to bully people and put people away in the first round because he's such an amazing fighter, and he gets into people's heads. But what happened was, he couldn't put Diaz away because Diaz is very resilient.
"If I make an analogy it's like Conor McGregor was pacing himself for a 400 meters race. He gave everything, but at the end of this 400 meters race, now somebody was telling him, ‘I'm sorry, you're not done yet, you have another 400 meters to do'. And if you didn't pace yourself, if you go all out thinking you're going to arrive at the finish line at 400 meters, now you have another 400 meters - you're done. There was lot of mental breakdown into that fight, and I think it's a great example of how a Diaz brother can already beat people mentally, and they're very good at it. When I fought Nick I was ready for that.”
The Diaz brothers are, indeed, known for their ability to get in opponents’ heads, but McGregor is no stranger to mental warfare. And GSP believes he just happened to be on the wrong end of it last time.
In the lead-up to UFC 202 in August, McGregor has lobbed his typical jabs at Diaz, but he’s also acknowledged that he underestimated the former lightweight title contender and lauded his ability to take a shot. While at the same time, pointing out that he was unloading on Diaz in the opening round.
GSP saw McGregor land those bombs too, and believes Diaz’s ability to survive under that type of pressure and keep pushing forward was one of the deciding factors in the first fight.
“I believe skillwise McGregor is better than Diaz,” St-Pierre said. “But I just don't know if he has the same mental resilience of Nate Diaz. Nate Diaz is very experienced -- that was a fight that was won because of his experience.”
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