And he understands how to use it. One thing Nate Diaz is really good at is not doing too much. He kept hitting Michael Johnson with that 1-2 in his last fight over and over and over because it kept landing. He didn't need to do anything else. For all the smack talk, he is a consistent fighter who doesn't let his ego get in the way of what he's doing. He doesn't usually press people, because he doesn't have to. He is very good at controlling range. He presses you from the outside, if that makes sense. He forces you to try to adjust to his length and his long range punching. He is always just outside of his opponent's striking range. Go back and watch his fights again. He can hit people with what are traditionally short range, inside punches like hooks and uppercuts from the outside, from jab and straight range, because he's so lanky. He also doesn't get credit for how accurate of a puncher he is, because he throws punches at weird angles that to fans of more "traditional" technique look sloppy. They aren't really. Both Diaz's fight that way, and they're both successful because they throw so many punches at such odd angles.
Now take this and contrast it with Conor. Conor is used to being able to hit people from range with long punches. he wont be able to do that with Diaz because Conor isn't the taller, longer fighter. Even if he makes Diaz miss, which isn't going to be as easy as people are making it out to be, he is then going to have to step forward, something that is unnatural to Conor, to hit Diaz. It being unnatural means it isn't going to come on instinct based off of repetitive motion and muscle memory based off of hours and hours and years spent doing it in the gym. That means he is going to have to make a conscious, forced effort to do it. That means he is going to have to think about doing it. That means he is going to do it slower than someone who fights like that naturally. Maybe it's only a half a second, a tenth of a second, but those little increments of time matter in fighting. He's also going to have to step forward into shots, because Diaz is always throwing, something else he isn't used to. And Diaz will be talking the entire time. I'm not saying Conor won't win the fight. It just isn't going to be the cake walk people think it will be.
