Anytime you get Nate Diaz and Conor McGregor in a room together, it’s likely to end poorly. The two UFC fighters will go at it Saturday night at UFC 202. Before that, they needed to get through Wednesday’s simple pre-fight press conference. It got off to a rocky start because McGregor, as he tends to do, didn’t make it on time. UFC President Dana White started the show without him. When McGregor finally showed up to start taking questions, things went downhill from there. Or uphill for White who’s trying to sell the fight to as many viewers as possible.
Diaz and McGregor sat on stage together for less than five minutes before shit went sideways. While McGregor answered a question, Diaz apparently decided he had enough and walked off the stage. He began to leave with his team while flashing double middle fingers at his opponent and cursing him out. McGregor isn’t one to keep quiet and even went so far as to refer to Diaz’s squad as “crackhead eses.” It’s a pretty gross way to refer to anyone, but especially fighters who pulled themselves up from modest beginnings through hard work and who do good work for the community.
Before he left the room, Nate, flanked by his older brother and fellow UFC fighter Nick Diaz, threw an object at McGregor, who responded in kind. They then chucked more bottles/cans and said more unkind words before White decided to cut his losses and sent everyone home. Surely, White experienced mixed emotions because the incident would do a great job of hyping the fight. But had a fan or media member sustained an injury, it would have spelled trouble for the recently sold company (new owners probably aren’t fans of unnecessary litigation).
This fight is the second of what McGregor insists will be a trilogy. In the first bout, Diaz made McGregor submit with a rear-naked choke. The rematch was quickly booked for UFC 200, but ended up on UFC 202 because of McGregor’s failure to show up for a promotional tour, leading a frustrated White to pull him from the event.