Nate Diaz on Conor McGregor’s Historic UFC 205 Win: It’s a Little Bit Artificial

Last weekend, Irish superstar Conor McGregor became the first fighter in UFC history to hold titles in two weight classes simultaneously. He did so by winning the lightweight title from Eddie Alvarez with a beautiful, second-round knockout. This lightweight title joins the UFC featherweight title on his already crowded mantle.

In the wake of this massive win, the world is singing McGregor’s praises, commending him on his historic accomplishment, and debating his position on the “greatest of all time” list.

One member of the MMA community is not particularly impressed by the whole ordeal however. That person is Nate Diaz, who went 1-1 with McGregor over the course of two bouts earlier this year, winning the first by submission and losing the second by decision.

In the wake of McGregor’s win, Diaz spoke with Brett Okamoto of ESPN to give his take on the situation.

“It’s all a little bit artificial,” The Stockton native said. “They handed it right to him. It was funny how I got left out of the picture. He wins the fight like I expected he would, especially against that guy, I thought the fight would go exactly how it went. I figured that. And then as soon as the fight’s over, I see hundreds of people [in the crowd] turning around and staring at me and I’m ‘like what do you want me to do?'” 

While Diaz isn’t particularly impressed by McGregor’s recent accomplishment, he’s not inclined to bash the Irishman for capitalizing on the opportunities that he’s been granted either.

“I’ve been getting blown up all week by everyone for interviews,” he explained “[Everyone wants] my take on the fight. I don’t even want to do any interviews or be a part of any of this, or bash the guy. Everyone can’t do nothing but hate on the guy for doing his thing, for doing his belt thing. If they gave me all that attention and all these opportunities, then I’d take them too.”

That said, Diaz encourages fans to take it easy on the “greatest of all time” talk, as it wasn’t all that long ago that he defeated McGregor.

“Congratulations to Conor, he did a great job, he got the two belts. But me and him know what happened in the last couple fights, and that greatest of all time stuff, that needs to just come to an end because I don’t remember any of the greatest of all time getting worked over like he did in our last two fights. Not to bash, but that’s how I feel about the whole situation.”

What did you think of McGregor’s big win at UFC 205? Sound off, PENN Nation!