– Paul Dollery reports from Las Vegas
AN OTHERWISE UNEVENTFUL UFC 202 press conference here at the David Copperfield Theatre at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas ended in bizarre circumstances this evening.
Nate Diaz, who faces Conor McGregor in a rematch in Saturday night’s main event at the T-Mobile Arena, walked out of the press conference early after McGregor had arrived approximately 15 minutes late.
Accompanied by his team — an entourage of about 25, including his older brother Nick and other well-known fighters such as Jake Shields, Gilbert Melendez and Chris Avila — Diaz yelled “Fuck you and your team” in McGregor’s direction, while giving his opponent a two-fingered salute.
His team-mates followed suit, and as they reached the exit, members of Diaz’s camp — including Diaz himself — began to launch soft drink cans and plastic water bottles at McGregor and his team-mates.
McGregor had initially responded by shouting “You’ll do nothing, get the fuck out of here”. However, the Dubliner lost his temper when the missiles were thrown and fired several back in the opposite direction.
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With McGregor being held back by Dave Sholler, the UFC’s head of press, Dana White, the promotion’s president, brought the event to an end.
It was an unexpectedly heated conclusion to what had been quite a dull press conference up until that point. Later, some eye witnesses reported that Nick Diaz had encouraged his younger brother to leave the press conference as a response to McGregor’s failure to show up on time.
Much of the reaction on social media has suggested that the incident was staged. Regardless, it’s only likely to have a positive impact on the pay-per-view buys for Saturday night’s fight, where McGregor will be aiming to avenge his submission loss last March.
