Nate Diaz: Conor McGregor would have been 'weeded out' fighting the guys I fought
Nate Diaz promises he's not holding any kind of grudge against Conor McGregor after their fight at UFC 196 just a couple of weeks ago, but he didn't enjoy the notion that the Irishman was going to just walk through him when they faced off.
Diaz stepped in to accept the fight on 11 days notice after lightweight champion Rafael dos Anjos suffered an injury, but he still submitted McGregor in less than two rounds to get the win.
Despite a wealth of experience in the UFC that includes a spot in the lightweight top 10 for the biggest part of his career, Diaz was still a massive underdog going into the fight with McGregor and he could never understand why.
"I've been fighting since I was 18 and I'm 30 now. I have more fights than anyone in the UFC. I have 25 fights. Sometimes people pick and choose but I never picked and choose, I just fought everybody all the time. I've been fighting top 10, top 5 guys since my third or fourth fight in the UFC. So I've got 23 fights with top 10 contenders," Diaz explained when speaking to "FOX Sports Live."
"That's what I was trying to say -- people were like 'there's no way Nate beats Conor'. I'm like why? You're riding a bandwagon (expletive). If he fought a quarter of the people I went through, he would have been done weeded out already."
Now that the fight's over, Diaz doesn't hold any aggression toward McGregor or his fans, although that will change if they are matched up again as rumored for UFC 200 in July.
Diaz says he holds a grudge against an opponent only because they are about to fight and he treats that just like somebody who is about to trade fists with another person in the streets -- it's kill or be killed.
"It's all good with everybody. If we ain't fighting, we're not lined up to meet up and fight, then it's all good with everybody. But if we're going to fight -- stay your ass over there and I'll stay over here. That's how I feel," Diaz explained.
"Everybody else is like 'that's unsportsmanlike' but this is not a sport. This is a fight and this is genuine. I'm the only one acting like that. There's a few but I'm the only one acting like we're in a real fight because you know why? We are in a real fight and that's the real attitude and the way I really feel about it. Sometimes it makes me the bad guy because of that."
In addition to his comments about McGregor, don't miss Diaz's reaction when he tells the "FOX Sports Live" hosts how he mistook them for Chael Sonnen when doing a pre-fight interview ahead of UFC 196. He even got a souvenir once the interview was over.
