Nate Diaz defends Conor McGregor after Jake Paul targeted UFC rival

22 July 2023 , 07:00

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Nate Diaz defends Conor McGregor after Jake Paul targeted UFC rival

Nate Diaz has jumped to the defence of his former UFC rival Conor McGregor after Jake Paul took aim at the Irishman in recent months.

Paul has been aggressive in pursuit of a massive crossover fight with the Irishman during his boxing career, pushing the envelope with his trash talk since the end of 2020. McGregor has generally ignored the verbal jabs, often refusing to even name him in interviews when asked about the topic.

McGregor has backed Diaz to win the fight, after two famous battles with the California native in 2016 that saw both men grab a victory over the other. And ever since they have had a grudging respect, with both eager to eventually get back in the octagon for a massive trilogy bout.

"He was talking s*** to Conor and dissing his wife and s*** on some real disrespectful stuff," Diaz said during an episode of Bradley Martyn's Raw Talk, referencing an old video where Paul mocked McGregor's fiancee Dee Devlin. "He shouldn't have been saying it and nobody said s***.

"I'm the one that said 'F***ing shut the f*** up, b****, I'm going to whoop your real a**'. Have some respect because if you're going to disrespect someone's wife who would actually whoop your ass to get a fight like that, that's not the fight game that's a real fight and you should shut the f*** up.

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Nate Diaz and Conor McGregor (Zuffa LLC via Getty Images)

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"No one was saying anything because the whole roster in the UFC is acting like 'Oh he can't really fight'. But he should shut the f*** up and no one is speaking and saying shut the f*** up so I'm like shut the f*** up. Then everything escalated to whatever so I'm like 'All right s***, let me handle what I got to handle and I'll be out'".

Diaz also recalled a story of meeting fitness influencer Martyn in Las Vegas when his brother Nick was making a comeback and telling him that he needed to "whoop someone's a*** and get this show on the road." He ultimately booked a fight with Khamzat Chimaev for last September, who missed weight allowing Diaz to instead face and beat Tony Ferguson and get out of his contract.

McGregor has also backed Diaz to beat Paul, telling Ariel Helwani on the Matchroom Boxing YouTube channel back in May: "I fancy him for it. The other cat's a bit windy. He's a donkey that guy, the other cat, but a donkey has kick, so you've got to be weary of that. But Nate will be peppering him, he'll hit his face in and it will be Nate."

Donagh Corby