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#2 Nate Diaz at UFC 196
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UFC featherweight champion at the time Conor McGregor was scheduled to make his debut at lightweight against the UFC lightweight champion at the time, Rafael Dos Anjos at UFC 196 on March 5 2016. This was to be the Irishman's first attempt at becoming the first simultaneous two-weight division champion.
However, Dos Anjos was forced out of the fight after breaking his foot during training. This announcement was made on February 23. Nate Diaz became Rafael Dos Anjos' replacement for this fight following his call-out of Conor McGregor in the post-fight interview after his previous win at UFC on FOX 17.
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Nate Diaz took the fight on an eleven-day notice. The fight was scheduled to be a welterweight bout due to the lack of time for both fighters to be able to make weight for lightweight.
Nate Diaz won the fight by a second-round submission with a rear-naked choke, thus handing the decorated Conor McGregor his first loss in the UFC as Diaz earned his ninth submission win in the promotion.
Apart from Nate Diaz, only Royce Gracie had that many submission wins in the UFC at that point in time. Diaz also received the Fight of the Night honors and a Performance of the Night bonus.
#1 Justin Gaethje at UFC 249
Tony Ferguson was the interim UFC lightweight champion scheduled to fight UFC lightweight champion Khabib Nurmagomedov in a title unification bout at UFC 249.
However, due to air travel restrictions in Russia as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, Nurmagomedov was not allowed to make the trip for UFC 249. Hence, Ferguson agreed to defend his interim title on the same night against Justin Gaethje.
'El Cucuy' who was touted to be the only fighter in the UFC lightweight division who could defeat Nurmagomedov, would finally have gotten a chance in the future to defeat the Dagestani fighter had he won this fight.
However, 'The Highlight' snatched this opportunity from Ferguson. Throughout the fight, Gaethje outstruck Ferguson, but the Mexican-American fighter refused to give up as he would in any of his fights.
Ferguson's chin was put to the test like never before in this fight, as most people would have been knocked out after taking so many punches. Nonetheless, Ferguson did not get knocked down despite taking plenty of Gaethje's heavy punches head-on.
It was in the fifth round when Ferguson was seen shaking his head and avoiding the fight after taking Gaethje's punch that the fight was stopped. That handed Tony Ferguson the first TKO loss of his professional MMA career.
It was later found that Justin Gaethje's punch had broken Tony Ferguson's eye socket.
