After dominating the UFC featherweight divisions throughout 2015, UFC superstar Conor McGregor has spent the duration of 2016 thus far in the welterweight division. In this weight class, which sits 35 lbs north of his former featherweight home, the Irish star engaged in a pair of unforgettable battles with Stockton’s Nate Diaz, coming up short in the first via submission, and winning the second with a hard-fought majority decision.
Over the course of these two bouts, McGregor and UFC President Dana White have both produced several soundbites emphasizing just how much of a size advantage Diaz possessed. While it’s true that Diaz has a few inches on McGregor, and that he may have outweighed him by 10 or so lbs on fight night, some of McGregor and White’s claims gave the impression that Diaz was a 500 lb. behemoth with laser-eyes and swords for hands.
Now months removed from his second bout with Diaz, McGregor continues to subtly reference the size disadvantage he dealt with over the course of these two bouts, evidently eager to downplay his loss to Diaz, and inflate his already impressive defeat of the Stockton fighter in their rematch.
McGregor’s latest reference to Diaz’s mammoth size advantaged occured in a recent post from TheMacLife productions, which follows his final preparations for a UFC 205 lightweight title fight with Eddie Alvarez. In this video, McGregor goes off on the entire UFC roster for not working as hard as him, before casually insinuating Diaz was not just a few inches taller than him, but three times his size.
His words below (transcribed by MMAFighting.com).
“[Alvarez] just has the belt,” McGregor said. “That’s it. That’s the only reason he’s there. After, I’m going to be struggling to see who’s next. Really, who the f*ck is next? Who has gone out there time and time again, back-to-back-to-back, putting it all on the line and continuing to show up?”
“They all say I’m all talk, but I look at them and say they’re all talk because I’m here fighting every week. I even had to fight a guy three times the size of me, and now, I’m back again. All they do is complain, b*tch and moan. You want this money? You want what I got? You have to put in the f**king work. And as far as I’m seeing, nobody is putting in the work. Everyone is talking, everyone is thinking just cause Conor has it, I should have it. No, no. I didn’t always have it. There is a reason why I have it. I had to work my f*cking bollocks off to get it, and here I am, still working while they’re talking.”
McGregor of course, obviously doesn’t truly believe Diaz was three times his size, and probably doesn’t expect to be taken literally when he says things like this. The Irish star is simply trying to emphasize his momentous accomplishments, one of which is his defeat of Diaz, who was undeniably the bigger man in the cage during their fights.
If he were talking about the time he sparred with “The Mountain,” of course, these claims could be taken absolutely literally.
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