Conor McGregor could barely wait for Joe Rogan to ask a question before jumping in and exalting in his close victory over Nate Diaz at UFC 202.
“Surprise, surprise, motherf**ker!” he yelled as the crowd in the T-Mobile Arena roared in support. “The king is back!”
McGregor pulled off a close majority decision win in his rematch against the younger Diaz brother, taking the first, second, and fourth rounds on all three judge’s scorecards. A big part of edging those rounds came down to leg kicks. When Rogan asked McGregor if they were a significant factor in his gameplan, the Irishman agreed.
“You’re damn right it was. He took them better than we expected. He didn’t show, didn’t let me know. That toughness and durability, that he has crept back in during the later rounds, but I’m still happy to come out with a win. It was a hell of a fight, he was a hell of a competitor, and he brought the best out in me.”
McGregor admits things got hairy for him halfway through the fight when Nate Diaz suddenly upped the pace while the Irish fighter seemed to struggle for energy.
“I dropped him in the third round, and then at the end of the third he started loading up,” he said. “But I just stayed calm with it. I didn’t exchange back with him, I just bounced the shots off my shoulders, and then reset for the next round. Like my coach said, we win or we learn. I learned from that last contest.”
In addition to a second wind that carried McGregor through the fight, the fighter also worked through what is being reported as a possibly broken foot. Cameras caught him limping towards the backstage, and later he was seen in the locker room area on crutches.
Despite winning by majority decision, Conor McGregor left the ring in crutches pic.twitter.com/0V0z5dkQYo
— Lee Harvey (@MusikFan4Life) August 21, 2016
If it is indeed a broken foot, it could be just what McGregor needs to finally kick back and relax for a few minutes after a whirlwind twelve months that saw him win the featherweight title and then split back to back matches against Nate Diaz — contests that are being reported as the biggest fights in the history of the UFC.
