Hi Sherbros. I've been thinking about the upcoming fight between Nate Diaz and Conor McGregor and rewatching Diaz' fights. After watching all his fights from Thomson to Johnson, I have to say it's definitely very unlikely that Diaz will represent any kind of danger to McGregor. Worse than that, I don't think Diaz is capable of being competitive against the top fighters anymore, as he has been decisively dominated by elite competition in the past 3 years.
Diaz has very solid boxing and jiu jitsu skills. He uses his reach advantage to constantly punch opponents in the face. In the fights I saw he rarely clinched, but when he did he was successful. I only saw a single takedown from him against Josh Thomson. His BJJ is rarely used as he never tries to get into a grappling match and is more often than not on his back if the fight ever goes to the floor. He seldomly throws leg kicks, but no other kicks. He is slow and a very easy target, as he is constantly overreaching his punches and exposing himself for counters. He is vulnerable to kicks in general. Doesn't check many leg kicks and also has problems defending head kicks. He doesn't attempt takedowns and I don't know much about his wrestling.
Conor McGregor has absolutely all the tools to destroy Nate. Nate is slow, while Conor is very fast. Nate doesn't defend well against kicks, Conor throws many kicks. Nate gets punched a lot and Conor's punches are deadly. Nate doesn't shoot for takedowns and doesn't try to wrestle his way into any grappling position. Nate rarely tries clinching. If he stands and bangs with McGregor, he is going down. In all the fights I've seen he never tried anything different, so I bet this time won't be the case.
But worse than simply not being a match for McGregor, I have my doubts Nate can really be competitive against the top anymore. RDA absolutely picked him apart. Benson won all 5 rouns so I bet that was a one-sided beating too. Thomson beat him standing for two rounds until the TKO. His only wins since 2013 are Gray Maynard and Michael Johnson. Johnson looked bad against him, and they both just stand and bang all three rounds. Gray was past his prime already and Nate has a gigantic reach advantage over him, which plays right into Nate's game. I don't mean to completely downplay Nate's wins but they were really unimpressive and say nothing about his ability to beat very competent opposition. I see Nate being easily picked apart and TKO'd by Conor at some point during the match.
I can be an idiot talking shit too, so let's talk about it if you will.
