In the fight game, things can change very quickly. One defeat, the curtain comes tumbling down and the emperor is as naked as the day he was born. That may be stretching the narrative a bit far but there's no doubt that Nate Diaz has done a rather good job of taking the sheen off the McGregor media machine.
The thought that the featherweight champ could wrap his opponents around his little finger with just his words was always a bit of a fallacy but, if there ever was any truth to it, then Diaz is doing a rather good job of turning the tables on the Dubliner.
Where once it was the UFC's biggest gift to a fighter to throw them in alongside Conor McGregor and watch them earn their 'red panty night', it's now McGregor who's scrambling for gifts from the promotion's matchmakers according to Diaz.
The Stockton fighter was speaking to ESPN.com following confirmation of the McGregor rematch and it's fair to say that he's not feeling the respect that he thinks his performance at UFC 196 deserves.
I swear to God, the UFC thinks it was an accident or something. They think it was an accident, and now they're saying, 'Let's get Nate back in there and take him out before he gets any bigger.
I don't think so. I've fought everyone in the UFC, and they better give me some motherfucking compliments if I win this fight.
Essentially, Diaz is having none of this narrative that McGregor is 'obsessed' with taking this fight at 170 once again.
Since that last fight, have you heard any praise for me from Dana or the UFC? None at all. How much praise has that motherfucker got? I've never lost a fight and not wanted to fight the guy 10 minutes later. The UFC is pumping him up again, saying he wants to redeem himself and giving him all this credit for it. It's like, dude, I've been obsessed with every fight I've ever lost. This is a gift for him to get it right away.
And just in case it wasn't clear that was Nate Diaz talking, he threw in another 'motherfucker' for good measure.
He's saying he's obsessed? Welcome to my life, motherfucker. That's the game, and I've never gotten my losses back.
Just over three more months of this. We'll try and pace ourselves but we can't imagine Diaz and McGregor are going to let up any time soon.
