Nate Diaz rips Conor McGregor's movement coach for playing 'touch butt' in the park
Nate Diaz acknowledged that he's actually a fan of Conor McGregor in many ways leading up to their fight on Saturday night, but he's definitely not impressed with the people the featherweight champion surrounds himself with to get him ready for battle.
On Wednesday during the UFC 196 pre-fight press conference, Diaz attacked McGregor's teammates and coaches with a few venomous retorts.
Diaz mainly targeted McGregor's movement coach Ido Portal after watching videos of the two of them working together leading up to a fight.
"You've got it all figured out, but who do you train with? You've got no training partners. Who do you train with? You've got that one little goofy (expletive) with you. I've got real training partners," Diaz shouted to McGregor. "Top-10 fighters. Top-10 boxers. Top-10 jiu-jitsu guys. Top-10 kickboxers.
"You're playing touch-butt with that dork in the park. (The guy) with the ponytail and I'm the one who ain't got no training partners? I don't think so. You seem to have it all figured out when you're fighting midgets. You got (expletive)."
Diaz's comments about Portal come just a day after his brother Nick also made comments about McGregor's movement coach during an episode of "UFC Embedded".
"They have a (expletive) guy swinging a (expletive) pool noodle at you, smacking you in the face with it, trying to promote his own (expletive). It's a joke," Nick Diaz said.
Meanwhile, Nate Diaz touted that he's working with nothing but world-class training partners to get ready for McGregor, even if he did take the fight on less than two weeks' notice.
"I train with top guys," Diaz said. "I've trained with Kron Gracie, world champion, best jiu-jitsu guy there is. I train with Nick (Diaz), Jake (Shields) and Gil (Melendez), top-10 MMA fighters and Joe Schilling, top-10 kickboxer.
"Just all-around top-10 guys and then all I see is this guy in a park with that goofball with the ponytail."
Conor McGregor working with his movement coach Ido Portal
Of course, McGregor had no problem firing back at Diaz's training partners after the initial exchange.
The Irishman was short and sweet with his response while also taking a shot at Shields and Melendez, who tested positive for banned substances while competing in the UFC.
"You train with bums," McGregor said. "Juice heads and bums."
Before it was over, Diaz sounded like he was gearing up for a full-on turf war pitting his entire team against McGregor's. Given the heat generated by this fight over the past two weeks, a team-versus-team battle sounds interesting.
"My whole team will (expletive) beat your whole team's ass," Diaz said. "How about that? The JV squad on my team will beat your team's ass."
