UFC featherweight champion Conor McGregor recently posted a hopeful dig at Nate Diaz on Facebook.
Diaz replied via Instagram.
McGregor has previously identified obsession as the source of his achievement.
“This is hard work. This is an obsession,” said McGregor in a recent video profile. “Talent does not exist, we are all equals as human beings. You could be anyone if you put in the time. You will reach the top, and that’s that. I am not talented, I am obsessed.”
However, as the exchange above indicates, McGregor’s obsessions may lie around around striking and T̶o̶u̶c̶h ̶B̶u̶t̶t̶ ̶i̶n̶ ̶t̶h̶e̶ ̶P̶a̶r̶k̶ Movement Training, rather than submissions and positions.
On a recent Joe Rogan Experience podcast, the UFC color commentator and BJJ black belt said McGregor needs to get obsessed with Jiu-Jitsu. Rogan believes McGregor can win the rematch, but says the mat is not where it’s likely to take place.
“If it goes to the ground? Oh, that’s the wrong guy. Nate Diaz is the wrong guy to go to the ground with,” said Rogan of Diaz, as transcribed by David St. Martin for MMA Fighting. “Nate Diaz is a legit black belt, a really high-level black belt. I knew Conor had gotten submitted by Joe Duffy. Anybody can get submitted if you get caught, but he got submitted by that Joe Duffy guy just a few years ago. Joe Duffy is a very talented fighter, no doubt about it, but Nate wouldn’t have gotten submitted by that same guy. I highly, highly, highly doubt it.
“A guy like Conor, if you’ve been tapped before by Joe Duffy just a few years ago with an arm triangle … to get caught like that, you’ve got a lot to learn and I don’t know if you’ve learned it all in time. You’ve got to be obsessed with jiu-jitsu. You’ve got to be in there every day training and I didn’t think he did [for UFC 196]. I thought it was more about movement and striking and all that stuff. I know he was doing some jiu-jitsu but it’s not like the primary focus. So I felt like, ‘That’s a big f***ing deep end jump.’”
“He might knock [Diaz] out. Conor can knock out anybody. But he didn’t. So now that he didn’t and now that Nate knows he didn’t, now they’re going to go into the second fight and Nate’s going to have a full training camp. Good luck.”
Conor McGregor fights Nate Diaz at UFC 200 on July 9 at the new T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada. it is expected to be the biggest card in MMA history.
