Conor McGregor And Nate Diaz Nearly Brawl At The UFC 196 Press Conference

Could this UFC 196 press conference have ended in any other fashion? Nate Diaz confidently walked up to Conor McGregor, who had been trashing his way of life and very existence for the previous hour, stuck his fist in McGregor’s face as a show of force, then all hell broke loose. It looks like McGregor slapped Nate’s hand out of the way, but it also kind of looks like a punch.

Either way, it set off a chain of events that led to Diaz and his crew needing to be held back by security as they went full 209. It wasn’t Jones/Cormier, but it was close to being a bad, bad situation.

Naturally, Twitter went wild at the events:

Then, it’s over. The weigh-ins are going to be crazy.

https://twitter.com/ZProphet_MMA/status/705516446303055873

https://twitter.com/GrabakaHitman/status/705530601252757504

https://twitter.com/Reddit_EAUFC2/status/705520803555573760
Upon multiple viewings from various angles, it definitely looks like Conor punched Nate’s hand. Hopefully Nate isn’t hurt and the fight is affected in no way.
https://twitter.com/JohnnyAlphaLion/status/705519582241497088
 https://twitter.com/Lowkingpl/status/705527746571665408
https://twitter.com/ufcvancity/status/705517726509375489
Then Nick steals the show as he gets on stage.
https://twitter.com/mmagenius/status/705517299332087808

A member of the Diaz fighter house made an interesting observation:

Needless to say, the weigh-ins are going to be crazy tomorrow, and the fight itself should be quite good. It seems like for the first time in his UFC run, Conor is facing an opponent who isn’t wilting to his head games. But then, Jose didn’t seem phased until he stepped into the cage on fight night. Hopefully nothing insane happens and these two make it into the cage Saturday night.