Conor McGregor had staph infection weeks before Nate Diaz fight

Earlier this year the MMA community was left stunned as MMA veteran Nate Diaz not only defeated Conor McGregor in the main event of UFC 196 on just two weeks notice, but also rocked and submitted the featherweight champ.

McGregor, who appeared to gas early in the fight, was noticeably drained going into the second round, where Diaz managed to land a perfect 1-2 combination that wobbled McGregor. The Irish superstar then shot for a takedown, which Diaz stuffed, ultimately resulting in Diaz securing a rear naked choke win.

McGregor of course went on to avenge the loss to Nate Diaz by picking up a majority decision win back in August in the main event of UFC 202 before then winning the UFC lightweight championship this past weekend as he TKOd Eddie Alvarez in the second round of their UFC 205 scrap.

Despite all of that, McGregor is often criticized for his cardio, given that he gassed out in his first fight with Nate Diaz.

Interestingly enough, on a recent episode of The Joe Rogan Experience, Rogan explained a potential reason behind why that might have happened:

“The guy steps in, loses to Diaz, takes the Diaz fight on short notice-by the way, after a staph infection. Here’s something not a lot of people know, he had a pretty significant staph infection and was on antibiotics until like, I think two weeks before the fight. If you don’t think that drains your gas tank you’ve never had a staph infection, and you’ve never taken antibiotics. They’re brutal on your whole body.”

“Your body is made up of all this shit you don’t consider to be you, but it is you, stomach flora is a real part of you. Your body is essentially an ecosystem, and when you have a staph infection, staph infections are dangerous as f**k and people die from them. So they hit you with some heavy duty antibiotics, I’ve had staph twice and it’s not fun. The first time I had it, I took the medication and I couldn’t believe how I felt. So weird, I felt lightheaded, I felt weak, I was like ‘woah’. It’s super strong stuff. I was like ‘Wow, imagine this guy 2 weeks after that.'”