The UFC recently announced that Conor McGregor and Nate Diaz would have their highly anticipated welterweight rematch in the main event of UFC 200.

While leaked audio from Diaz’s recent Fox Sports appearance showed him revealing that he wanted the rematch at lightweight so that McGregor wouldn’t have any excuses, the fight was ultimately slated for welterweight.

Conor McGregor’s manager, Audie Attar, spoke during the UFC 199 media day, which was transcribed by MMAFighting, regarding the situation.

“At the 11th hour, before we signed the bout agreement, [McGregor] said, ‘Look, I’m hearing everybody. If everybody wants to do 155, fine. Let’s do 155,’” Attar said Wednesday at a UFC 199 media day. … “The contract was already written at 170. And so, in Conor’s defense, he really didn’t give two sh*ts. He really wanted it at 170, because he wanted to prove he could beat him there.”

“Conor is his own CEO, but intelligently he listens to the people around him and then makes his own final decision,” Attar said. … “He was trying to accommodate and listen to everybody and be a team player to make this happen.”

As we all know, the fight was booked at welterweight. The way Attar tells it, McGregor was “obsessed” with the idea of winning the fight at welterweight.

“For him, that loss in itself, because of how he was performing until it went the other way is yet again fueled by his own self-belief system, confidence and desire to want to continue to push the envelope with his athletic ability and his skills, no matter who is in front of him,” Attar said. “It happens to be the guy who beat him. He wants to put the same canvas up and paint a different picture for the audience to watch. And that’s what it’s all about, really.