Written by Jason Gay at WallStreetJournal.com
the Ultimate Fighting Championship brawler from Dublin, who in short time had talked and taunted his way into becoming the most polarizing athlete in the sport. McGregor had won a bunch of fights, too, but what really elevated his profile was his wickedly obnoxious self-regard and relentless jeering of his competition. To McGregor, every opponent was a “bum” who should be thanking him for a payday.
He was crude and merciless, and I admit: I generally found him to be really, really amusing.
A lot of people did not. Nate Diaz did not. Diaz is a welterweight fighter who was summoned 11 days before Saturday’s UFC 196 fight after McGregor’s original opponent, Rafael dos Anjos, went down with an injury. Diaz had been prepping for a triathlon—multisport lunatics unite!—but it was enough training to easily handle McGregor, who had beefed himself up more than 20 pounds since winning a lightweight title in December.
Think of the damage Diaz could have done to McGregor if he’d only had 12 days notice!
The Big Mouth surrendered in the second round when Diaz locked him in a chokehold. “I’m humble in victory and defeat,” McGregor said. “My respect to Nate. He came in at 170 [lbs.] and took the fight on short notice and did the job.”
Holy humility! McGregor had transformed into Roger Federer before our eyes.
Diaz, meanwhile, was rightfully proud in his post-fight speech, but a little salty, repeatedly using a term I cannot use in the pages or the newsroom of The Wall Street Journal, not even when the coffee machine’s broken.
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