UFC 202: Nate Diaz reveals training injury before Conor McGregor fight after displaying brutal effects

Diaz says he hurt his knee and ribs to leave him unable to spar ahead of his UFC defeat by McGregor, which he inists he believed he won

The after-effects from the greatest fight in UFC history was left for all to see as Nate Diaz addressed the media to stand by his claim that he won his rematch against Conor McGregor at UFC 202, with his swollen face littered with cuts and bruises to display the brutal punishment he suffered at the weekend.

Diaz lost a majority decision to McGregor to leave their rivalry at 1-1 after the Californian won their original encounter at UFC 196 in March. On that occasion, Diaz won the fight after taking it at 11 days’ notice, and with a full training camp behind him at UFC 202, many expected Diaz to beat McGregor once more.

The Irishman upset the odds though, and having enjoyed his own training camp in which he was able to prepare for a six-foot southpaw, McGregor delivered a much more tactically astute performance in which he remained at range an targeted Diaz’s dominant leg with a series of kicks as well as enjoying success with left-hand punches.

Diaz insists he won the fight though, and the prospect of a third deciding encounter is a near-certainty even if it won’t be their next bout.

“I thought I won, at least three rounds to two and I didn’t even think that was a question,” Diaz said in a UFC interview after the fight.

“Obviously I felt I like I could have done better and done some better things but I thought I won the fight and they give it to him. I’m not bitter and it’s all good because I’m paid, it’s all good you know what I’m saying?

“I don’t think he did much and he did a lot of running in that fight and I’ve been saying, and my brother’s been saying for years, he should have got a yellow card for that type of thing, you know. He ran the whole fight, you see me chasing him around pointing my finger and saying ‘where are you going?’ he’s scared to engage and I feel like they should have took a point for that. On top of me winning anyway, they should have taken a point away which wouldn’t have let him win the fight, that’s how I feel about the whole fight.

“To top it off I was injured coming into the fight, and that ain’t no excuse either, I got the whole thing in tape. I hurt my knee about a month ago and I wasn’t able to train ju jitsu for the last month and then about two weeks after that I was just boxing and I really hurt my rib, I got hit in the body by my opponent, Alex Sanchez who’s a really good boxer, and that put me out of sparring about two and a half weeks ago. I got that all on tape so just to set it off, not to make excuses because I’ve got that all video’d [sic] up but he should have finished me off. If I had been fighting me, I would have taken me clean out.”