Aside from the obvious reasons, I knew it was a bad idea when my girlfriend had heard about it before I had.
“Did you hear about Conor and Nate?” she asked. Innocuous enough, I thought. Surely one of them, most likely the Nor-Cal resident, had tested positive for a certain banned substance and all the frivolities that accompanied Nate Diaz’s win over “Mystic Mac” were soon to come crashing down.
“They’re fighting again this summer, apparently.” She came to this news via Instagram, the image sharing platform that has increasingly become a source for breaking news, or, in the very least, tantalizing rumors. Who or what platform broke the news remains a mystery; when pressed, the best she could come up with was, “I don’t know, it was on Instagram.”
It was fitting, in that sense, that a fight that shouldn’t be happening in the first place was announced via the social media website designed solely to serve a person’s vanity.
The Price of Vanity: McGregor vs Diaz 2
And, really, that’s what this rematch is: an exercise in vanity. When Conor McGregor planned a move up from featherweight to meet Rafael dos Anjos for the lightweight title earlier this month, there was cause for celebration. Finally, the long sought-after “superfight” was taking place; champion vs. champion. History in the making. All manner of other hyperbole was employed leading up to the fight.
Then, of course, somebody got hurt. It wasn’t the Irishman; in his eight fight history with the UFC McGregor has thrice had an opponent drop out at the last minute while he’s made it to fight night with, potentially, only one leg to stand on. Instead, it was dos Anjos who fractured his foot just days before the bout, forcing the UFC into a frantic search for who could provide McGregor with a meaningful opponent on just eleven days’ notice.
Enter the 209. Fresh off an emphatic win over Michael Johnson in December, Nathan Diaz took full advantage of the mic time he was given both post-fight, and at that evening’s press conference.
“Conor McGregor, you’re taking everything I worked for, mother f*cker. I’m gonna fight your f*cking ass. You know what’s the real fight, what’s the real money fight — me.” It was a match made in heaven. Diaz cut such a sellable post-fight promo that he managed to cut the line in front of names like Aldo and Cerrone when it came time to find a replacement.
And while there were claims from Zuffa that Nate had been training for a Triathlon leading up to the bout, Diaz was actually “drinking tequila on a boat in Mexico” when he got the call to take the fight (just as an aside, is there any way that answer could get more Diaz-like?)
Despite only having a week to promote the fight, the UFC worked its magic and actually managed to generate a fair amount of hype before their main event at UFC 196. People were expecting another win for the ‘Notorious’, but were excited to watch how he’d manage to get it done against the larger, rangier opponent in Diaz.
Then Conor got tired, got hit, and got choked. It was the Gaelic pugilist’s first loss in more than half a decade, ending a massive 15-fight winning streak. In the moments after the fight, all pretense of anger and misgivings that existed between Diaz and McGregor seemed to melt away. They were just two men who laid it on the line on a Saturday night in Vegas, and the better prepared fighter came out victorious.
Conor had a built in excuse; while Nate had taken the fight on only eleven days’ notice, so had McGregor. He was clearly ill-prepared during the actual contest and it became painfully obvious when he was nearly choked unconscious in the second round.
It was one of those fights that, despite being a fun watch and a hot sell, there remained no discernible reason to (Hulk Hogan voice), “Do it again, brother.” There was a clear winner, and an even clearer loser. No foul play from either side, no referee malpractice, nothing that would otherwise justify placing these men in the cage again. Nothing outside of serving McGregor’s vanity. This is the first rematch in a while that exists without the pretense of justification; it’s a fight designed solely to get McGregor back in the winning column. We all know if Nate had lost this fight there would be no hint of a rematch. From Zuffa’s perspective, Nate was lucky to get the fight in the first place. To run it back again? That’s crazy.
But will we all watch? Certainly. This fight could very well end up being more popular than the first. But what if Conor loses? It’s a very real possibility; while McGregor will get the advantage of a full camp in preparation for Diaz, so too will the Gracie jiu jitsu star. It’s not at all out of the question to expect an even better performance out of Diaz, especially given how quickly he took over the fight when it entered his domain the first time around.
Diaz will surely be the underdog again; bookies and casinos can’t help but favor the proven commodity in McGregor. But if Sunday rolls around and McGregor has nothing but two consecutive losses looming over his head, the Diaz fight quickly goes from an excusable loss to career-altering speedbump.
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