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01st Sep 2016

Nate Diaz plays down talk of trilogy fight with Conor McGregor

Alan Loughnane

Conor McGregor Nate Diaz

He claims to have won twice already…

The UFC 202 clash between Conor McGregor and Nate Diaz was one of the fights of the year, up there with Robbie Lawler and Carlos Condit at UFC 195, and an instant classic.

The Notorious won the fight via majority decision but Diaz was instantly unhappy with the judges’ scoring and claimed in his post fight interview that he thought he’d won the fight.

It was a difficult fight to score, with one judge giving the third round to Diaz 10-8, which meant he scored it a draw overall before being overruled by the other two judges.

The decision split the MMA community down the middle, with many fighters and journalists claiming the Stockton native as the rightful winner and others giving the nod to McGregor.

Diaz himself sees no reason to have a trilogy fight with The Notorious because in his mind, he’s 2-0 up on the scoring and isn’t chomping at the bit for another bout with the Dubliner.

Speaking on Chael Sonnen’s You’re Welcome podcast, Diaz explained the situation: “I don’t know. Do you remember last time they rushed to his house the next morning and said he was all obsessed or whatever?

“I was pretty crazy about it for a couple of days, but it’s whatever to me, you know? I won that fight and I’m not jumping for joy already for round three. I think I beat him twice, so it’s 2-0 as far as I’m concerned.

“It might get made down the road, I don’t know. I believe they know too, because he’s got a smart coach on his hands. Him and his coach know what happened in the fight and they aren’t stupid, so I think they are going to do what they can to return to his division and get onto a new stage.”

But this wouldn’t be the first time Diaz has played mind games, with the much publicised walkout from the UFC 202 press conference hyping the fight no end. Stating he doesn’t want to fight McGregor any time soon could be the clever way of getting the public to salivate over the trilogy.

Only time will tell, McGregor has business to attend to first.