Nate Diaz Boxes Up Conor McGregor And Forces Him To Tap At UFC 196

After ten days of sh*t talk that felt like an eternity, Nate Diaz and Conor McGregor finally made that walk to the Octagon. This wasn’t a brawl at a press conference, this was real. No more words, just punches and kicks.

Round one was wild with Conor McGregor landing plenty of heavy left hands on Nate Diaz, busting the younger Diaz bro open. But Nate wouldn’t be phased, and was able to work his jab affectively, and got a takedown (that was reversed) at the end of the first.

Nate gets busted open badly in the second round but starts getting fired up, debuts the Stockton slap, begins boxing up Conor who shoots for a sloppy takedown. Nate utterly dominates the Irishman on the ground, and forces Conor to tap.

All on ten days notice.

Was Diaz shocked or happy about his opponent? Nope. He went full Diaz of course. He wasn’t surprised at all:

And for his part, Conor McGregor was gracious in defeat:

This changes everything. Conor has been exposed officially. His ground game looked suspect against Chad Mendes, and he looked completely outclassed on the ground against Diaz. Conor McGregor now has 3 losses on his record, and all are via submission. That’s not taking away from Nate’s boxing, which was spectacular, but a hole in Conor’s game has been exposed.