Here's what I think: GSP wants to come back, not to make a title run, no he wants the biggest fights, fight the biggest stars he says. He wants super fights with ton loads of cash involved.
UFC wants that too. Their biggest star atm is Conor, sure it doesn't have to be him, there are other options, but GSP vs Conor could potentially be the biggest fight in UFC history. But Conor's a bit small for GSP, but hey, what if "weight classes don't matter" what if they had a star who'd fight anyone at any weight class?
Still though, we need to make that a bit credible we need Conor to move up in weight as pre-fight so we can build this fight and sell it. Sure, unprepared Nate Diaz would work, let's do that. On its own it's a huge fight. Brilliant, win win for UFC.
Conor is excited, he just needs to KO Diaz, he believes he can do it. It's a big gamble but oh the reward of fighting GSP in his come back fight. Conor is game! To the media, it was all his idea. After all, if things don't pan out, UFC don't want the public to know anything about their plans. They'd rather hold their cards tight and let thing evolve and just make the best of any development. That's how they have always run their business.
Oh gosh, Conor lost. But, he's not giving up, he just needs one more chance. UFC thinks OK let's try it again. For UFC, worst come to worst Conor defending his title is still big and any opponent for GSP is also big anyway. Win or lose, UFC still wins.
But then something is not going so well with getting GSP to do that come back fight. Something about sponsors, things are getting tougher, uncertain. Even if Conor wins his rematch with Diaz, they need him to go defend his title before he can fight GSP as that might be some time away after all. They tell Conor, listen, even if you win against Diaz now you have to do a title defense next, and btw, if you lose your title defense we probably won't give you GSP.
Now Conor not only has to win his fight with Diaz he also has to defend his title against Frankie or Aldo, before GSP can happen. Now that Diaz fight just doesn't seem so attractive. Conor wants to cash in on it NOW. He tells UFC, pay up! But UFC is like no way... The rest is history.
