Nate Diaz: The UFC knows a third fight is a bad idea for Conor McGregor
According to Nate Diaz, UFC officials didn’t even want him at UFC 205
When Nate Diaz watched Conor McGregor dethrone Eddie Alvarez to claim the UFC’s lightweight title at UFC 205, thus making him the first fighter in the promotion’s history to hold two belts in two different weight classes at the same time, the question on everyone’s mind was simple.
When’s the third fight going to happen?
McGregor (21-3) walked with a majority decision win after 25 minutes of hard-fought action against Diaz (19-11) at UFC 202. Combine this with fact Diaz defeated McGregor in their initial contest at UFC 196, the general consensus amongst fans and pundits was both men would have to meet for a third time to officially settle the score.
But according to Diaz, the promotion wouldn’t even allow him into UFC 205 let alone book the third fight.
“As soon as [McGregor wins], hundreds of people are turning around and staring at me,” Diaz told ESPN. “I’m like, ‘Hey, what do you want me to do? The UFC didn’t even want to give me tickets to this fight. I think they gave Nick Jonas my seat.”
But with such profitable fight on their hands, and with the fighting community begging for the trilogy, why not make it official? For Diaz, the answer is simple.
“The UFC knows that’s a bad idea for [McGregor]” said Diaz, who sat in a club as opposed to cageside. “Why didn’t I get tickets to this fight? I said, ‘I’ll leave him alone. I don’t want to fight the guy. Just let me get a seat.’ Me and my brother, they didn’t want to let either one of us in here.
“They want to hide me out, I think. Put him on more of a pedestal than they have already. It’s whatever though.”
To Diaz’s credit, he sent his congratulations to his rival on making history on the historic card but also recognized the do have unfinished business the fans are itching to see.
“People question me, ‘Hey, when you gonna fight number three?'” Diaz said. “I know that everybody needs to see that. If I’m gonna do something, that’s what I’m gonna do — but I’m not begging for it. If anybody should be asking for the fight, it should be him. He’s the one that has something to prove.
“Congratulations to Conor. He did a great job, got the two belts — but I just know that me and him both know what happened in [our] fights and that ‘greatest of all time’ stuff needs to just come to an end. I don’t remember any of the greatest of all times getting worked over like [he was] in the last two fights.”
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