After Conor McGregor made history on Saturday night at UFC 205, his chief trainer John Kavanagh laid out the potential competition landscape. According to Kavanagh, Nate Diaz would be a more interesting next opponent, a man he branded as the "second best 155er."
"I think Nate would beat either Tony or Khabib," Kavanagh told Ariel Helwani during Monday’s edition of the MMA Hour. "I think he really turned a corner with the Michael Johnson fight. I think we saw a new version of him. I think he looked fantastic in both Conor’s fights."
Diaz, however, disagrees. Speaking to Brett Okamoto of ESPN.com, the former lightweight title contender actually feels the UFC is purposely putting him aside and position himself away from a trilogy against McGregor.
"I think it’s just to put him more on a pedestal that they already have put him on," Diaz said. "It’s whatever, though. I know what happened in the fight between me and him the last time, and he knows what happened, and people know what happened."
"The UFC knows that's a bad idea for him. Why didn't I get tickets to this fight? I said, 'I'll leave him alone. I don't want to fight the guy. Just let me get a seat.' Me and my brother, they didn't want to let either one of us in here."
McGregor rightfully has earned more accolades after defeating Alvarez, bagging another world title in the process. Diaz, however, was not fully impressed.
"Congratulations to Conor. He did a great job, got the two belts -- but I just know that me and him both know what happened in [our] fights and that 'greatest of all time' stuff needs to just come to an end."
"I don't remember any of the greatest of all times getting worked over like [he was] in the last two fights."
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