Nate Diaz gives Conor McGregor major compliment: “He understands…”
Nate Diaz and Conor McGregor have exchanged boatloads of insults under the years, but have never shied away from also expressing respect for each other.
Both Diaz och McGregor have come a long way since their two bouts in 2016. Diaz would pull off one of the biggest upsets of the year when he submitted McGregor in March and “The Notorious” McGregor would later revenge his loss with a majority decision win five months later.
After that, McGregor would go on to become UFC’s first double-champion by defeating Eddie Alvarez via TKO in Nov.12, 2016. He would then be involved in a much-publicized boxing bout against Floyd Mayweather Jr. in what would be known as “The Money Fight”.
Diaz would be out from MMA competition for almost three years when he then returned in August, 2019 and put on a stellar performance against Anthony Pettis.
Diaz would later face Jorge Masvidal in a fight to determine the “BMF” in the UFC. Ahead of his Masvidal fight he complimented McGregor in an interview with ESPN:
“He understands all about the real sh-t too though,” Nate Diaz said of Conor McGregor “I could hear when I fought him, when I fought him I was like, ‘Oh you’re really trying to get into a fight’. You recognize the real fight game. We got something on our hands here, a real fight.”
“That’s what drew the trash into that fight, the realness of that sh-t,” Diaz continued.
“There’s nobody like that in the fight game, it’s becoming a sport, it’s f–king silly, and when you’re sticking around, still winning in this and getting hold of that mic, people can’t help but acknowledge and agree with you, because you just proved it on a stage.”
“It’s all the real truth of the game, and the truth shall set you free.”
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Nate Diaz about McGregor: he made a show
McGregor is currently rumored to take on Donald Cerrone in early 2020 while Diaz’ future in the sport is still uncertain.
But when Diaz looks back on the impact that McGregor had on the sport of mixed martial arts, he can’t help to tip his hat and acknowledge the Irishman:
“They put him out there to make a show out of this sh-t and that’s when the sport was getting stagnant anyway,” Nate Diaz said about McGregor.
“They got a little loud mouth, confident Irishman that could fight, and kick ass and make a show out of himself and put a target on his head — then you attack that target and you’re like ‘haha, a normal person from Stockton came out here and took you the f–k out’, and now the show got shifted. Zigged and zagged.
“And now there’s a whole f–king show out here, and people just don’t know how to be involved in it, probably because they’re trying to make themselves out of the wrong show. This is the fight game, this is not a f–king competition. A sport competition. So the more I think about how it’s a fight, really like a fight, people attract.. [McGregor] was spitting it on that big stage.”
