IF a fully-trained Conor McGregor can’t beat a Nate Diaz who stepped in on eight days’ notice, why are people expecting him to win against a fully-trained Diaz at UFC 202?
That’s the question being asked by Diaz’s longtime coach Richard Perez, who was Octagonside to watch his protege defeat McGregor after a wild fight at UFC 196 back in March.
Stung by that submission loss, McGregor called for a rematch, which takes place at UFC 202 on August 20 at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.
And Perez says the outcome is only going to be worse for McGregor second time around.
Speaking to Australian outlet Submission Radio, Perez explained that while McGregor has been getting the majority of the spotlight about his re-focused training camp, Diaz’s camp has gone largely unconsidered.
“See, people are talking about McGregor, but what about Nathan?” he said.
“He’s got a training camp too, so why are they making McGregor look like he’s going to be better when he already got whooped in eight days?
“They can’t see that Nathan is going to be in better shape, you know, have better tools? No, that’s wrong. But that’s the media, that’s what they do.”
McGregor’s training camp has been well documented, with the Irishman sharing regular behind-the-scenes video clips from his training camp in the lead-up to the fight.
But while McGregor’s preparation has been very public, Diaz has been training largely in private, making only brief media appearances to help promote the fight.
And Perez says the fact that Diaz will come into the bout with a full training camp under his belt will prove decisive on fight night.
“The way I see it is that Nathan is going to get the win,” he said.
“I feel that Nathan’s going to be better and I feel that McGregor is going to be in trouble, because from eight days to a full training camp is totally different from Nathan.
“He’s going to come out a lot sharper, faster, quicker and he’s going to have more energy,” he explained.
“McGregor’s going to have the same thing he had the last time. He trained hard for the last fight before Dos Anjos got hurt, so he was already training.
“No matter if it was a tall guy, short guy, he was still training to fight. Nathan wasn’t. So that tells you a lot. That tells me a lot.
“He’s fighting a guy that’s a lot better than him, a lot stronger than him.
“So that’s what I don’t understand why people are favouring McGregor.”
Nate Diaz takes on Conor McGregor in the main event of UFC 202 in Las Vegas on Saturday August 20. Follow our coverage throughout fight week here at http://thesun.co.uk/mma
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