Nick Diaz: Conor McGregor will never be the best

While Conor McGregor is currently the UFC featherweight champion, and has the opportunity to go down in history as the first UFC fighter to simultaneously hold title belts in two weight classes when he fights Eddie Alvarez for the lightweight championship at UFC 205 on November 12th, MMA veteran Nick Diaz doesn’t think McGregor’s beat anyone noteworthy.

Diaz, the older brother of Nate Diaz, who became the first man to defeat McGregor in the UFC back at UFC 196, spoke during a recent interview about McGregor’s status in the MMA world, saying:

“He’s not [great], though,” Diaz said in a recent video interview. “On paper, he’s not. Who are the 145-pound fighters who he beat up? Nobody good, in my opinion. Just a lot of commercials and advertising. How many blackbelts has he tapped out? When he was talking shit back-and-forth about fighting Floyd Mayweather … like, you have already lost to two guys who are not on a legitimate level.

“That just tells me, look, you ain’t ever going to be the best,” he continued. “You already lost to two fucking guineas. I ain’t ever losing to somebody who lost to some fucking little Irish land guineas. That’s fact, that’s on paper. And on gym, you can see what kind of work he has put in. He ain’t working with nobody — he ain’t working with no black belts. Has no legitimate trainer.”

Leading up to the pair’s first meeting at UFC 196, Nate Diaz repeatedly called McGregor out, questioning the caliber of the fighters at SBG Ireland. The Diaz brothers certainly have quite the stable of elite level fighters. In addition to well-known MMA fighters such as Gilbert Melendez and Jake Shields, legendary kickboxer Joe Schilling, and boxing champion Andre Ward both frequently train with the Diaz brothers.

So far there has been no word as to when Nick Diaz will be returning to the Octagon following the end of his 18 month suspension earlier this year. Leading up to UFC 202 in August, it was revealed that Nick Diaz was still technically suspended by the NSAC given that he hadn’t paid his entire fine.

Recently however, Diaz has been linked to rumors of a potential bout with Georges St-Pierre, with the pair reportedly set to fight once again at UFC 206 in Canada, however there has been no official confirmation as to the bout.