Conor McGregor vs Nate Diaz rematch confirmed for UFC 202
The fight will now take place in August
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Your support makes all the difference.Conor McGregor has his next fight booked and no it's Floyd Mayweather. After weeks and weeks of talk about a Mayweather boxing super fight, normality to the world of combat sports was restored with the announcement of Conor McGregor and Nate Diaz II which has been signed for UFC 202 in August.
The announcement of the rematch was first reported earlier in the evening by Ariel Helwani of MMA Fighting and was later confirmed by the UFC themselves via a promo which aired during their broadcast of UFC 199.
Although no venue was given on the promo, UFC vice president of public relations confirmed that the fight would take place at 170lbs and at the new T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas. Earlier in the evening, Nate Diaz had foreshadowed that announcement having tweeted out a video on his Instagram account where he is seen 'Stockton Slapping' UFC president Dana White and commenting 'Getting deals done today #immagetmymoney #stocktonslapped #ufc @representltd #100'
The announcement last evening followed reports last week that the rematch was very far from being booked and that the UFC were having big difficulties agreeing terms with the Diaz camp.
While McGregor was said to be begging the UFC for the rematch, Diaz was said to be asking for more money than the UFC were willing to pay and this led to White criticising Diaz and public and confirming to Colin Cowherd that he walked out on a lunch meeting with the man from Stockton.
“That was true. It wasn’t necessarily as much Nate Diaz as it was the management, but yeah I did (leave the dinner),” White said.
“The problem is what drives me crazy is when you have a contract. Everybody sits down at one point and we do a deal, everybody’s happy, you shake hands, you hug and then we move onto the next fight and everybody wants to blow up the deal. Obviously, for that last Conor-Nate fight, Nate Diaz made millions and millions of dollars and he stands to make even bigger money.”
At that point, it looked like a deal was far from being done but the two parties seemingly meet again before UFC 199 in California this evening and thrashed out a contract that was agreeable for both sides.
This now means that UFC 202 will be headlined by the second fight between McGregor and Diaz and it comes following Diaz handing McGregor his first ever loss in the UFC at UFC 196 in March. The rematch had originally been set for the main event of UFC 200, however, McGregor failed to comply with the UFC's promotional demands and thus the organisation scrapped the fight.
After a long period of uncertainty, the announcement will no doubt please MMA fans worldwide and they can put another unmissable night of UFC action in the calendar on 20 August. Whatever will Floyd Mayweather talk about now?
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