WHEN YOUNG ATHLETES are on the way up, comparisons are often made in order to add perspective to their potential.
Rory McIlroy was compared to Tiger Woods, Colm Cooper to Maurice Fitzgerald, Jonathan Walters to Marco van Basten — well, at least he was in my head anyway.
During his rise through the ranks with Cage Warriors in 2011 and ’12, Conor McGregor was likened to Nick and Nate Diaz more often than anyone else. As he gradually perfected the cultivation of a brash personality to ally to his impressive striking skills, the similarities seemed more conspicuous as time went on.
It only took McGregor three years after his departure from Cage Warriors to establish himself as the biggest star in mixed martial arts, so the comparisons have long since faded. The UFC featherweight champion is peerless right now and it’s true that the sport has never seen anything like him before.
However, it’s difficult to escape the feeling that the manner in which the Diaz brothers have conducted themselves over the years provided some inspiration to a young Conor McGregor when he was mapping out his route to the top. That McGregor will now face one of them in his next outing is yet another indication of the unprecedentedly rapid progress he has made during his time on the UFC roster.
Not so long ago, Nate Diaz operated on a pedestal that McGregor could only dream of ascending to. Now, it’s Diaz clamouring for the big payday that McGregor can provide — as he did following his defeat of Michael Johnson in December.
To provide some context, we could publish an exhaustive list of all the controversies the Diaz brothers have been involved in over the years, but with the fight just 10 days away, there may not be sufficient time to do so.
Among the recent incidents they’ve been involved in was a brawl which broke out at a World Series of Fighting event last August with UFC lightweight Khabib Nurmagomedov and his team.
Nick, the older and more well-known Diaz brother, is also currently serving an 18-month suspension from the Nevada State Athletic Commission as a result of repeated failed drug tests due to marijuana use.
Nate was fined for violating the UFC’s Reebok outfitting policy when he wore jeans to the weigh-in for his most recent fight. He responded by telling the UFC that he wasn’t too bothered: “I don’t need that baby ass shit anyway.”
To summarise, the only rules the Diaz brothers play by are their own. They’ve never bowed down to the UFC’s authority, which has subsequently made them two of the most popular fighters the sport has seen.
Their rebellious personalities have been shaped by their upbringing on the streets of Stockton, California — origins they’re always keen to verbalise. You might hear a lot about 209 [Stockton's area code] over the next week or so.
In a 2012 interview with Nate Diaz, Ben Fowkles provided an insight into what makes the Diaz duo tick. He wrote:
Nate explained to me why he hated the UFC’s practice of making fighters who might one day have to face each other in the cage share time and space at media appearances and in airport shuttles. The way he saw it, this was intentional. It was the UFC’s attempt to make professional fighting ‘like some sport’, when, at least in his mind, there was nothing sporting about trying to break other people’s limbs and faces on live TV. To pretend otherwise was to buy into an illusion, which Nate seemed to believe would only harm his performance.”
It’s unlikely that Conor McGregor’s previous opponents — if they were to be entirely open and honest — would deny that he managed to exert a psychological stranglehold over them before their bout began.
They’ll be reluctant to do so, of course, and McGregor himself tends to play down this aspect of his arsenal — before the fights, at least. Afterwards, he has often spoken of his opponents becoming “emotionally invested in the contest”, which has always played into his hands.
Dave Hill, who McGregor defeated to win the Cage Warriors featherweight title in June 2012, is one of the few fighters to have provided an uncensored account of what it’s like to fight ‘The Notorious’.
“Looking back, it definitely flustered me,” he told The42 in an interview last year. “After the weigh-ins I was just thinking: Fucking hell, this guy is just so game and loves the aggro. It was just something I hadn’t experienced before. I think it’s his inner confidence. He’s obviously such a confident bloke.
“I cleared my head after the weigh-ins but then during the fight he started talking again. He was saying: ‘I’ll go all day with you, you look soft, I’ll go five rounds if you need to’. It sounds stupid, but when he said it I was asking myself: Do I look soft? You’re not used to someone talking to you when it’s fight time. It puts you off a bit because that’s not what you should be thinking about during a fight.”
Nate Diaz may be the only opponent Conor McGregor has faced who will be immune to his attempts to strike a psychological blow before they enter the octagon. In fact, it’s possible that this may be the first time we see McGregor on the back-foot in that particular brand of warfare, and how he counters will be intriguing.
The Diaz brothers tend to elicit the same this-guy-is-a-complete-lunatic facial expressions from their opponents that we’ve seen from fighters who have had to contend with McGregor.
McGregor and Diaz have addressed each other in the media — “I tip your wage, Nate,” the Irish fighter said recently — but tonight they’ll meet for the first time at a press conference in California.
There’ll undoubtedly be mutual respect but don’t expect that to restrain them. McGregor will know Diaz won’t be spooked in the same way that others have. Diaz will be aware of that too, which should make some form of flashpoint almost inevitable.
Diaz may also be fuelled by envy. McGregor has become everything he has aspired to — namely, a wealthy champion in dominant fashion while doing things his way instead of being a ‘yes man’ for the company, with his popularity always increasing.
“Conor McGregor, you’re taking everything I work for, motherfucker! I’m gonna fight your fuckin’ ass. You know what’s the real fight; what’s the real money fight. It’s me, not these clowns that you already punked at the press conference,” said Diaz in the aftermath of his win against Michael Johnson.
Yesterday’s withdrawal of Rafael dos Anjos means that the build-up to the revised UFC 196 main event will be brief. However, if you’re not particularly keen on the type of trash-talk that has become a booming industry during ‘The McGregor Era’, you could be in for a long 10 days.
Don’t be surprised if that continues when the fight begins either. McGregor has often taunted his opponents in the octagon but there’s nobody better than the Diaz brothers when it comes to mid-fight verbal exchanges.
Ultimately it may not be significant at all — Diaz was hit too easily and often against Michael Johnson and we expect Conor McGregor to capitalise on that by stopping him with strikes — but how McGregor handles this new mental challenge will be fascinating to observe.
It may also provide him with an opportunity to prove that he doesn’t need a psychological headstart to remain a step ahead of the game.
