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In one of the great UFC main events of all-time, a bloodied, beaten, and exhausted Conor McGregor fought tooth-and-nail with Nate Diaz for 25 minutes on Sunday.
The bout, which headlined UFC 202 from the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, almost slipped through McGregor’s fingers.
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The 28-year-old dominated the first two rounds, chopping his bigger opponent down to size with a series of low kicks, and dropping Diaz three times with punches during the first ten minutes.
Reminiscent of the first bout between these two at UFC 196 in March, the John Kavanagh-trained fighter took an early lead but began to wither as the fight reached the later rounds.
By the close of the third round, the quick-on-his-feet Irishman had turned into a heavily-tattooed punching bag, eating a steady diet of punches and elbows from the Stockton, California poster boy.
In the first fight, which only lasted nine minutes and change, McGregor gave in to his exhaustion, surrendering the fight in the second round.
History looked like it was about to repeat itself when McGregor slumped on his stool between the third and fourth frames. His trainer gave directions, but McGregor sat unresponsive with his mouth wide open, huffing and puffing.
Staring down the barrel of a second-straight loss to Diaz, ‘The Notorious’ McGregor found his second wind, outstriking his bloodied and battered adversary in the fourth.
That delayed surge in energy ultimately gave McGregor the win, although not without controversy. The fight was ruled as a majority decision for the Dubliner, with two of the three judges awarding him the victory, while another scored the bout a draw.
Whether you felt he was the rightful winner or not, McGregor’s performance was first-rate. His highlight-reel will always show a loop of crippling knockouts but make no mistake, this UFC 202 performance is his career high point.
When the chips were down, the hard-hitting southpaw found another gear and valiantly fought on at a time when it would’ve been much easier to quit.
Moreover, McGregor even called for a trilogy fight with his tough-as-nails rival on Sunday. “Surprise, surprise, the king is back,” he said in the cage after the fight. “If you want this trilogy, it’s on my terms. I came up to 170 (pounds), now you’ll come back to 155 and we’ll finish what we’ve started.”
The first fight between these two was one of the two highest grossing mixed martial arts events in history, and early estimates for the rematch suggest it will sell over a million pay-per-view units also.
The problem with scheduling the third McGregor-Diaz clash for the tail-end of 2016 is that the sharp-tongued fighter currently holds featherweight gold, a title he won before skipping town to chase bigger opponents.
As it stands, the 145-pound division has been handcuffed since last December. Even though the weight class has crowned an interim champion in Jose Aldo, it has largely been stuck in a holding pattern since McGregor’s exit.
That’s a problem UFC president Dana White plans to address, telling ESPN that McGregor could be stripped of his title if he doesn’t return to featherweight to unify both titles with Aldo.
“Conor has to defend his title,” he said. “Or make a decision to give it up.”
McGregor, on the other hand, doesn’t have the same level of urgency to return to the division he once – albeit briefly – lorded over.
“I don’t think they want to strip the belt,” he suggested at the post-fight press conference “If they want to give my belt to the guy I KO’d in 13 seconds, how can they?”
The Irishman has a point, but he received his chance at redemption after an embarrassing loss, and now the Brazilian should be afforded the same opportunity.
The third Diaz fight will be waiting for McGregor when he returns to lightweight, especially since the 209 native claims he “won’t be doing s***” until he gets a third crack at the pay-per-view king.
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