Nate Diaz (L) and Conor McGregor battle during their welterweight rematch at the UFC 202 event at T-Mobile Arena on August 20, 2016 (Photo by Steve Marcus/Getty Images)
A trilogy fight between Conor McGregor and Nate Diaz during the mid-2010-s was a matchmaker’s dream
Conor McGregor might be in the last chance saloon when he takes on Dustin Poirier at UFC 264. A loss might probably spell the doom on his incredible MMA career.
There was a time when the Irishman was considered to be invincible. He was tearing apart the UFC’s featherweight division. And in the unexpected of moments, he was scheduled to fight Nate Diaz in March 2016 in a welterweight bout.
McGregor thought it would be another walk in the park for him, but Diaz had other ideas. In only the second round, he submitted McGregor to inflict his first-ever UFC defeat.
A rematch was agreed upon in the immediate aftermath, and this time it was scheduled to take place at UFC 202 in August 2016. A lot was expected from McGregor’s side. The Irishman narrowly scraped through, earning a majority decision win over Diaz.
With the scoreline at 1-1, many believed there will be a trilogy fight soon. But, that never came as McGregor took a different path. He went on to become the first-ever two-division champion in the UFC.
Now that McGregor is fading, talks of a Diaz-McGregor trilogy have opened again.
Diaz returned to the UFC after two years, a couple of weeks ago. He faced Leon Edwards at UFC 263, going down fighting to the Brit. Despite losing the fight, Diaz showed why he has always been the fan-favourite.
With Diaz still having plenty of fight left in him, UFC President Dana White was asked by Brett Okamoto of ESPN if a trilogy fight between Diaz and McGregor intrigued him.
White replied:
“I was never crazy about the first fight. So, I don’t know. I’m not even thinking about that. I haven’t thought about that fight at all. Let’s see how this [McGregor-Poirier] plays out, let’s see where it goes.”
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