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Nate Diaz gives his side to the UFC 202 press conference debacle

The press conference for UFC 202 descended into chaos at an early stage on Wednesday night a...



Nate Diaz gives his side to th...
Golf

Nate Diaz gives his side to the UFC 202 press conference debacle

The press conference for UFC 202 descended into chaos at an early stage on Wednesday night as Nate Diaz and Conor McGregor get set to face off on Saturday. 

There were one or two questions asked before Diaz and his crew walked out, and water bottles went flying across the room. McGregor was eventually escorted off stage, and UFC president Dana White called an end to the event.

The issue that got everyone so riled up was, once again, McGregor's time keeping, as White noted in the wake of the event, stating that the Irish fighter showed up late and that "he's got to start respecting people's time."

Speaking on UFC Tonight on Fox in the aftermath of the incident, Diaz revealed that he got up and walked out of the event as a result of the fact that McGregor arrived half an hour late.

"Like I said, that guy walks in like he was the show, but I thought the show was over, so I left the show."

Last time the two met, many though McGregor was going to win, given that Diaz took the fight on such short notice, but this time out, the Stockton man is highly-fancied by pundits and fighters alike to beat McGregor. As pointed out by Daniel Cormier and Kenny Florian, 20 out of 21 fighters asked picked him to win, to which Diaz's response was "who's 21?". 

Despite dominating the ground game in their first bout, Diaz added that he won't be going straight for takedowns in this one: "I feel like I got the best stand up in the game and the best ground. I don't even care man, whatever, It's a mixed martial arts fight, I'm gonna fight."

While many expected to see his brother Nick in his corner, he added that there were "technical difficulties" with that and it was unlikely that he would be cage-side on the night. 

McGregor also appeared on the same show, and gave his side of the story too, stating that the whole incident was just "handbags." 

"I don't know I saw people panicking up into the stands," said McGregor, "and I thought maybe there was a case of dehydration going on, I was simply launching up some hydration for people. We're out in the desert here, it's intense. The reality is they were walking out, talking s**t, throwing bottles. I mean if you want to fight, let's fight. It was handbags, it was nothing. I don't know what happened, I just defended myself, that's it."

Via MMA Fighting

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