Conor McGregor, Nate Diaz Rematch Set For This Summer


Conor McGregor and Nate Diaz are set to reunite in the UFC ring this August after months of speculation regarding whether or not they would get to fight again.

Diaz won their previous match in March, ending McGregor’s 15-fight winning streak, and the duo were rumored to be butting heads again in July at UFC 200, but that was quickly put to rest after McGregor and the UFC organizers had a spot of trouble. McGregor reportedly refused to fly in from Iceland–where he was training–to do promotional work in Las Vegas along with the other fighters. UFC president Dana White said he took Conor off the July ticket for that reason, but Conor later claimed on Twitter and other social media outlets that he would, indeed, be fighting, leading to all sorts of rumors, speculation, and confusion.

Dana White responded to the post, saying it was absolutely not true.

“It’s not true. We haven’t talked to Conor or his manager since the press conference. I don’t know why he would tweet that. All the media keeps asking me that. I feel like the scene in ‘Step Brothers’ when they ask if they can build the bunk beds. I don’t know how many more times I can say the fight is off or how many more press conferences I can have saying the fight is off for people to believe it’s off,” Dana White said.

The entire back-and-forth was highly publicized, with some critics taking to Twitter to call Conor out for not doing what they deemed to be his job. Conor hit back afterwards, saying in an interview that everything was blown out of proportion.

“I was in a time where I was figuring out something. I didn’t just shut out and say no to everything. I just wanted to do reasonable media, and then, hey, all of a sudden, ‘Conor, it’s three months from the fight, we’ve got to drag you on 40-hour flights to come and do a runaround, New York, Vegas, California, 70 press conferences, 70 talk shows, adverts, all of this,’ and it’s like, I already made you $400 million last week,” Conor said.

McGregor must have worked something out with White, because the fight was announced over the weekend. Fans have been clamoring for a rematch between McGregor and Diaz, because McGregor took him on the first time by gaining 25 pounds.

Nate Diaz, meanwhile, says that his win against McGregor in March should have netted him a big payday. Instead, he only got paid for past performances. The real reason the rematch has taken so long to get hashed out is because he wants a raise.

“That’s reimbursement, that’s what the UFC 196 payday is. I haven’t been paid yet. I’m not begging for this fight. But everybody else seems to think it’s absurd when I’m asking for a raise. Every fighter needs to start acting like a businessman and treat yourself like a business and get yourself paid… I told Dana, ‘I don’t want to piss no one off, but I just want to get mine when I can,’ ” Diaz said in a recent interview.

Conor McGregor was one of many celebrities to pay tribute to Muhammed Ali over the weekend after news broke of his sudden death, taking to Twitter and Instagram to share a photo of the boxing legend.

“Nobody will ever come close to this mans greatness. And if they do, they better wake up and apologise,” McGregor wrote.

[Photo by Rey Del Rio/Getty Images]

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