The lead up to UFC 202 has been downright fascinating. We’re seeing Conor McGregor become increasingly frustrated at Nate Diaz simply not caring about his usual pre-fight antics, and Nate is somehow getting into the head of McGregor, who is famed for playing mind games. This is perfectly explained by Nate Diaz, who in talking with the UFC Tonight crew, explained that he showed up to the press conference on time, and then left when he answered his questions. When Nate left, the show ended. Yes, the bottle throwing was stupid and childish, but Nate’s right — when he left, the show ended. That’s it.
Nate dictated what a $4 billion company did with its fight promotion, not Conor McGregor. There’s no doubt that infuriates Conor, and it shows in this latest episode of UFC Embedded. Conor is struggling against poor Dave Sholler, UFC VP of PR to go out and continue talking after everything falls apart at the presser. Then he wants to at least face off against the vacated 209. Unfortunately, Conor showed up late.
This is becoming a reoccurring problem for McGregor. He’s the biggest star in the company, but he thinks he can do what he wants. He wanted to skip UFC 200’s media, he gets pulled. He shows up late to UFC 202’s presser, he gets showed up by Nate and then has to be physically removed from the premises. Woof.
Fun fact: episode 1 of UFC 202’s Embedded is the most watched ever in UFC history. I think we can agree that this fight is trending to be as big as UFC 196.