His biggest salvo, though, was the (baseless) accusation that McGregor was taking steroids. He also pointed to the difference in size, claiming that McGregor had "only beaten midgets." Well, that and the fact that he never gives an inch.ĭiaz stuck to his own truth: He has a longer UFC tenure than McGregor (Diaz has 21 UFC fights to McGregor's seven). So that's what makes Diaz's smack talk stand out in a way. No, they'll never win a Nobel Prize, but the best thing about their trash talk is that they're never really trying.
You're a credit to the community."ĭiaz, a noted man of the people and dedicated athlete all year around, probably took at least some of that as a compliment. Either way, Diaz was prepared in that markedly unprepared way of the Diaz brothers. "He makes gun signs with the right hand and animal balloons with the left hand. "He's like a little cholo gangsta from the hood, and at the same time he coaches kids' jiu-jitsu on a Sunday morning and goes on bike rides with the elderly," McGregor said. There's a reason why the UFC's YouTube stream of the conference had well over 100,000 viewers at this point. You can step on the scales at 170 and that's it, we're going to go and fight, and that's it. Then, he came back, 'He could only make 165.' So then I told him to get comfortable. The first discussion was the money issue. "Even Nate tried to exit the fight," McGregor said. Nate Diaz Reinhold Matay-USA TODAY Sportsīut soon enough he laid into Diaz, saying it was also a struggle to entice Diaz into the bout. He didn't grab Diaz's microphone and throw it into the crowd or anything like that. But after he swaggered to the podium more than half an hour late for the big media to-do, he touched his sparking cable of internal energy to his wit and braggadocio and let the voltage fly for all current and potential opponents, the UFC and anyone else who wanted some. He didn't do anything outlandish Wednesday at the UFC Gym in Torrance, California. Sonnen or Ronda Rousey or whoever previously wore it in your household and place it atop the sandy brow of the Irishman Conor McGregor. Let's go ahead and take the MMA trash-talk crown away from Uncle Chael P. Conor McGregor John Locher/Associated PressĬonor McGregor was a surgical scalpel, Nate Diaz was a railroad tie and the news conference to formally announce and promote their fight at UFC 196 was one for the books.īefore we discuss any further, let's take this opportunity to handle a small piece of business.