After Miesha Tate choked out Holly Holm in the co-main event, UFC 196 ended in similarly shocking fashion, as Nate Diaz forced Conor McGregor to submit to a rear naked choke in an insane second round in Las Vegas.
McGregor was doing a lot of what he said he would do early in the fight, picking Diaz apart with combinations, and especially finding a home for the straight and overhand left. He continued to pour on the strikes, but he was increasingly engaging in a brawl with Diaz, and that turned against him in the second round.
Diaz cracked McGregor with a huge left of his own midway through the second, and it turned the tide of the fight. McGregor was wobbly, and wound up getting hit by more and more strikes, which eventually had him shooting in for a takedown out of desperation. Diaz stuffed him, wound up on top himself, and quickly shifted to mount. McGregor gave up his back, Diaz took little time to flatten him out in order to cinch in a tight rear naked choke, and McGregor had no choice but tap.
In his post-fight press conference, Diaz quipped, “I’m not surprised, motherf***ers.”
A humbled McGregor could only lament the loss, credit Diaz, and say he took a chance on a higher weight fight and it didn’t work out his way.
Said McGregor, “I’ll face it like a man, like a champion, and come back again.”
Penick’s Analysis: Such an insane sequence of events. McGregor was doing most of what he wanted to do on the feet, and whether he underestimated Diaz’s power, or his chin, or anything else, he got cracked, he didn’t react greatly, and Diaz took him out. His movement wasn’t as fast as expected, he allowed himself to get in the brawl and get hit, and he got taken out. It’s a massive blow to the UFC’s plans for the summer, and though there are no clear major options to headline UFC 200, there are a number of options to build up a card as stacked as they can go.
[Mark J. Rebilas via USA Today Sports]
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