McGregor vs. Diaz 2: Three ways Nate Diaz wins the rematch at UFC 202
The pride of Stockton, California can and should beat Conor McGregor on Saturday
By
Matthew Coca
•
1 min read
Conor McGregor expected to walk into the Octagon and walk out with his win streak still intact in March when he squared off with Nate Diaz. However, the pride of Stockton, California, had other ideas. Now, five months later, McGregor will get his shot at a rematch with the younger Diaz brother and will once again enter as the betting underdog.
Here's how Diaz can do it again and walk out victorious at UFC 202 on Saturday.
Weather the storm
This is what Diaz was able to do against McGregor that ultimately led to his submission victory. If the first round is any indication of how McGregor is going to attempt to defeat Diaz, then the welterweight needs to be able to absorb the kind of punishment he did in that first fight.
Round two was all about Diaz being the smarter of the two fighters. He took the punishment and, in the second, was able to unleash on McGregor knowing that Irishman had nothing left in the tank.
Get the fight to the ground
It is no secret how Diaz needs this fight to play out. If he gets McGregor to the ground, the fight is over. Diaz is a black belt in Brazilian jiu-jitsu and McGregor simply isn't close to good enough to defend him, suffering all three of his professional losses via submission.
Once Diaz was able to control the action, he easily won the fight. McGregor is going to do all that he can to make sure the fight never gets to that point again. Diaz needs to look for the takedown opportunities, but cannot be over aggressive while looking for them.
Precision beats Power
These are the famous words that McGregor said after knocking out Jose Aldo at UFC 194, "Precision beats power and timing beats speed." That's exactly how the 31 year old got the fight to the ground in the first matchup.
According to FightMetric, Diaz landed 77 of 152 significant strikes or 50.6 percent. McGregor landed 61 of 140 or 43.5 percent of his significant strikes. Diaz was able to beat McGregor at his own game. Now, it's going to be about replicating that same precision and timing in this fight for Diaz, knowing that McGregor is going to have a completely new game plan.
