Conor McGregor vs Nate Diaz delivered on levels of epic proportions that few other MMA bouts have in the past. This welterweight contest between two natural 155’ers resulted in nothing short of absolute chaos. While McGregor’s hopes of becoming a multi-weight world champion are no doubt delayed with his loss, he showed just exactly who he is as a fighter – a risk-taker, untouched by the fear of any challenge opposite of him. Nate Diaz also showed that he is one to throw down any time, anywhere, and against anyone. Diaz was able to leech the gas tank, shift the tides of momentum, and ultimately wind up tapping McGregor out in the second round.
Allow me to break down some very key elements of this epic fight, and go through what led to Conor McGregor’s demise on March 5th.
Conor’s left hand
The “Celtic Cross”, as MMA analyst Robin Black coined it, is Conor McGregor’s potent left hand laced with vulargity which has stolen the consciousness of so many fighters. Below, you can see how he throws it. It’s smooth, it sails, and it aims to hit the back of the skull. Also, notice it’s trajectory.
Against Chad Mendes, Conor threw it in a straight line as he lined Mendes up with the perimeter of the Octagon cage; notice the follow-through as Conor’s hand ends in a downard angle.
Against Jose Aldo, the left hand acted as a counter with its trajectory also being downward, smashing into the chin as Aldo uncorked his wild left hook.
Two different punches for two different situations, but the similarities to emphasized are the straightness of the shot, the downward follow-through, and the minimal effort Conor puts into them. These left hands are shots that Conor can throw all day every day without getting too fatigued.
Now compare and contrast these knockout blows to some of the shots Conor McGregor was trying to land against Nate Diaz. We know Conor predicted himself to win in the first round by knock out, and he attempted to live up to that expectation as best he could. But notice the difference in technique in Conor McGregor vs Nate Diaz.
In the above clip, just under a minute into the first round, Conor is swinging wildly with a left hook, right hook, left overhand combo – clearly trying to headhunt Diaz for the spectacular KO. The shots aren’t the straight, precise, measured left hands that Conor utilized before. These shots appear nasty, angry, and slightly off-course absent of the regular downward trajectory. While the left overhand at the end of the sequence landed, Diaz was able to roll with it. Conor did nothing but waste energy here. The more force you put into a shot, the more energy it takes out of you when it misses.
This clip shows the highlights of the first round. Several bombs by McGregor landed on Diaz, but notice, the check hook of Diaz was there to land nice and flush. This was exploiting Conor’s lack of defense as he exited the “firing range.” Against smaller opponents, Conor got away with this as he could land and then hang out just out of range of his opponent’s counters. Unfortunately for him, he could not do this against someone with the longer reach. The middle sequence however was much more effective. Nate stepped in with a one-two, Conor got out of the way and delivered the counter-left. It wasn’t the same counter-left he used against Aldo though; this one dug a little more down and into the chest of Diaz.
Energy expenditure
In the post-fight press conference, Conor McGregor explained several times what went wrong in the fight. He said he was inefficient with his energy, and Diaz was more efficient. This sounds all fine and dandy, but what does he mean “inefficient”? Sure, he was headhunting throughout most of the fight, but given the power Conor posesses, it seemed inevitable that one of those left hands would put Diaz unconscious. Unfortunately, many of Conor’s shots missed, and they weren’t just your standard missed jab or one-two combination. When Conor missed, he wiffed bad, and had wasted significant amounts of energy doing so.
Here, we see some of Conor’s worst moments of the first round. Wild left overhands that came up short, and a whole lot of wasted energy. Contrast that with what Nate Diaz is doing. Diaz’s one-two comes clean, straight down the pipe, and his jab is used as a sharp way to maintain space and distance. The way Diaz avoided the overhand left was also smooth; instead of ducking out of the way, he slid back with minimal-but-enough movement.
This is a pretty interesting clip. Conor McGregor predicted earlier on in the week that his uppercut would be the shot to put Diaz down. Here we see Conor clip Diaz with the overhand left which got Diaz retreating back against the cage. McGregor threw the quick one-two upstairs prompting Diaz to cover up, but McGregor’s range was off as the right uppercut comes up short. The left uppercut (which he loaded up on) is short and just plain inaccurate.
Notice how Diaz’s body is open for attack the entire time here. McGregor alluded to a body-heavy assault in this fight, but it never really showed itself during the bout outside of a few instances. I believe McGregor found early success with the overhand left, had too much faith in his power, and kept swinging for it time and time again – like winning once at the slot machines and continuing to play until you’re broke.
A more measured approach
While there were definitely some bad moments for Conor, there were some good ones too. In this instance, Conor chose not to swing wildly at Diaz’s chin, and instead opted to rip the body.
Conor quickly flashed the lead uppercut, and instead of bombing the overhand left (which Diaz covered up for in anticipation) McGregor smashed the left hook to the ribs. Conor, realizing his success, even acknowledged it with some verbal abuse.
While McGregor’s overhand left is no doubt a powerful weapon, I found that McGregor had much more success throwing quicker, smaller shots. In the clip below, you see how McGregor began to use his right hand to coax Diaz into the left. It wasn’t the wild, booming left hook or overhand which he threw all throughout the first round, but it was sharp, straight, and crisp.
These jack-hammer left hands also forced Diaz to tie up. I believe he was rather hurt during this exchange as it was really the only time McGregor was able to get Diaz leaning into his left hand. Rather than McGregor chasing Diaz around the Octagon grasping for his chin with the overhand, McGregor was able to coax Nate into the smaller, more punctual shots which resulted in more damage and more success.
The beginning of the end
Unfortunately, the adjustments McGregor made were too late in the fight. McGregor had already wasted the majority of his gas tank on trying to hack Diaz’s head off, and Diaz was just too damn tough to go down.
Notice McGregor’s expression when Diaz and McGregor shuck each other’s hands down in the beginning of the clip. McGregor’s arms stay down at his hips while Diaz’s come straight to his chest – a sign that Conor’s arms must have been feeling like jello. Nevertheless, Conor closed the distance and started teeing off with short hooks and uppercuts on the inside, but Diaz took most of them on his arms and gloves. I believe Diaz felt a considerable decrease in McGregor’s power, and this was really the beginning of the end for the Irishman. This was the sign that Diaz needed for him to know that he could start turning it on, and stealing back the momentum.
Picking up where we left off above, Diaz pushed forward with the crisp one-two. McGregor was able to slip Diaz’s jab throughout much of the bout by slipping off to his left side, but doing so put him right in line for Diaz’s follow up left. The punch caught McGregor in the middle of loading up on a left uppercut, and staggered the Irishman.
What I want to point out though is how hard McGregor tried to mask that he was hurt. Diaz followed up his initial one-two with another that McGregor more-or-less ducked into by leaning to the same side. Diaz tried it again, but McGregor smartly went the other way, and left Diaz swinging at the air. A shrug from McGregor attempted to persuade Diaz that he wasn’t hurt, but Diaz knew better and began to turn up the heat. Diaz positioned himself to put Conor against the cage at the end of the clip.
Diaz started to swarm McGregor, and smartly clinched up with him. In the clinch, Diaz was able to easily out-muscle a stunned and fatigued Conor McGregor. Diaz smashed a stream of left hands to the face, and even snuck in a knee to the breadbasket.
Going out on his shield
McGregor, knowing that he had to make something happen quickly, decided to go out on his shield in an attempt to thwart Diaz’s onslaught. McGregor winged the left hook, and then tried to piece together a combination against a shielded Diaz, but Nate disrupted this with a right hook and forced McGregor to surrender backwards. Nate then pushed forward witha pair of one-twos, and smartly anticipated McGregor’s defense. Diaz even threw a right handed palm at the end of it. Sensing he may be getting knocked out soon, McGregor desperately shot a half-hearted takedown attempt. From there, Diaz was able to easily progress through the positions, get to McGregor’s back, and get the biggest win of his career.
Conor McGregor vs Nate Diaz was an absolute slugfest that was rich with learnable lessons for Conor McGregor. We will definitely see him come back strong. For Nate Diaz, one can only expect him to be earn the hard-fought credit he may finally deserve. Not only is this his biggest accomplishment, but one could argue Diaz just snagged the biggest accomplishment that the Diaz family name has ever had. I think Nate just out did his brother with this one.
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