Nate Diaz says Conor McGregor has ‘a great chance’ against Floyd Mayweather
There are a lot of people picking against Conor McGregor in his fight with Floyd Mayweather on Saturday night but it appears he might have one very unlikely ally in his corner.
Nate Diaz, who holds the only win over McGregor in the UFC, actually believes fighters and critics alike are really discounting the Irishman’s chances of pulling off the upset when he steps into the ring with Mayweather on Saturday night.
After spending more than 30 minutes in the Octagon together, Diaz feels like he knows McGregor pretty well and he expects his former foe to surprise a lot of people with what he does in the fight against Mayweather.
“I think he has a great chance,” Diaz told the “Against All Odds” podcast this week.
“I’ve fought the top pros in the fight game, the best fighters in the world, and done better than a lot of them. I fought Conor for 25 minutes, I believe he’s definitely going to have a chance. Fighting and beating the best boxer pound for pound in the world right now? That’s another story but a fight’s a fight and we’re going to have to watch and see what happens. Hopefully for a hell of a fight.”
.@NateDiaz209 joins @TheCousinSal on ‘Against All Odds’ to discuss Conor McGregor's chances against Floyd Mayweather https://t.co/CSyFJIFLVS
— The Ringer (@ringer) August 24, 2017
Diaz says his fellow fighters are really coming up short if they are discounting McGregor’s chances considering they’ve all been surprised at one point or another during their own careers.
Diaz knows after sparring with several top boxers over the years including undefeated champion Andre Ward that anything is possible when two fighters start throwing punches at each other.
“Of course he has a chance. This is the fight game, you always have a chance in a fight. I believe there’s a lot of ignorance going on in the boxing community. Everybody’s dissing Conor and saying he doesn’t have a chance and they’re over stocking saying stuff they all think they could beat him,” Diaz said.
“The ignorance is crazy because no one actually knows except for fighters like me and my brother who have sparred with the high-level pros. I know if I went into a fight like that, I’d be like ‘don’t ever count me out, cause watch me win this s–t,’ so I believe that the more people talking like that, gives him more of a chance of having more and more motivation. That makes things more entertaining, more interesting.”
NATE DIAZ SAYS BOXERS SHOULD KEEP THEIR OPINIONS TO THEMSELVES
The naysayers all saying that McGregor is going to get dismantled by Mayweather could just be adding onto his resolve to ensure that doesn’t happen.
Diaz knows for a fact when people have counted him out in the past, it’s only made him fight that much harder.
“The more people say he doesn’t have a chance, the more fearless you get about the whole situation,” Diaz explained. “Like ‘oh you think so motherf–kers? Watch me take over this whole s–t’.”
Diaz also makes it clear that he doesn’t have a horse in the race when it comes to the fight this weekend because he’s not a boxer and obviously he’s got no love lost for McGregor after they’ve battled it out on two occasions.
Diaz is just smart enough to know that counting out someone with knockout power like McGregor is just asking for disaster to happen.
“It’s crazy because, I’m not on the MMA side, I’m not on Floyd’s side, I’m not on Conor’s side but I’ll tell you whose side I’m definitely not on, it’s definitely not on the UFC’s side, you know what I’m saying?” Diaz said. “The boxers, every f–king pro boxer is saying something and all this criticism, and I think it’s a better option is to keep your opinion out of it.
“What happens when Conor wins, let’s say he wins, and all that s–t these boxers talk, aww all this s–t, oh you thought you knew but you don’t know s–t because you say stuff like he doesn’t stand a chance. They should know, just being fighters, that in a fight, everybody stands a chance, and if you’re saying that there’s no chance, I think that’s a big problem.”
