Nate Diaz's 5 most memorable UFC fights

#4 vs. Conor McGregor – UFC 196 – 03/05/2016

Diaz's win over Conor McGregor transformed him into a superstar

This was the fight that turned Diaz from a popular action fighter who tended to alternate wins and losses into the global superstar that he is today – and incredibly, it wasn’t even supposed to happen! For those who’ve forgotten or don’t know, the original main event of UFC 196 was planned to be Conor McGregor challenging Rafael dos Anjos for the UFC Lightweight title, but when ‘RDA’ broke his foot, the UFC found a willing replacement in Diaz – albeit with the fight taking place at 170lbs.

The pre-fight video package summed the whole thing up, with a voice-over from DMX stating that “it’s the fight that makes no sense, and yet makes all the sense in the world”. Coming in, McGregor was the hot favorite, and for good reason – he was coming off the biggest win of his career, a 13-second knockout of Jose Aldo, and he’d never come close to being beaten in the UFC.

But Diaz was the biggest man he’d fought by far, and more to the point, he was bringing in a large reach advantage and a proven, rock-solid chin that’d seen him TKO’d just once in his career. And for once, it appeared that McGregor was beaten in the territory of mind games, too – Diaz simply didn’t care for all the trash talk at all, and that seemed to get under the Irishman’s skin.

Unsurprisingly, McGregor came out swinging for the fences, seemingly confident that despite his chin, Diaz would simply wilt under his massive punching power. But despite busting the veteran’s right eye up and largely turning his face into a bloody mess, McGregor couldn’t find the killer blow. By the end of the first round, the Irishman was sucking wind, while Diaz seemed eerily calm.

Early on in the second round, it became clear that it wasn’t Diaz who was in trouble, it was McGregor. Not only were his punches unable to knock Diaz out, but they were swiftly losing their pop, and now Diaz was firing back and taunting him for good measure. As the crowd began to sound shocked, Diaz grew in confidence, stunning ‘The Notorious One’ with more punches, and eventually, hurt and tired, McGregor shot in for a takedown.

The takedown put Diaz on his back, but only for a moment. The jiu-jitsu black belt wasted no time in sweeping McGregor, mounting him, and seconds later the Irishman gave his back. Diaz sunk a choke in, and one of the wildest fights in UFC history was over.

Post-fight, it was more classic Diaz fare. Refusing to accept the result as an upset win, Nate simply blurted out “I’m not surprised, mother*ckers.” It was a soundbite destined to be repeated over and over and over. Not only had Diaz beaten the biggest superstar in the history of the UFC, but when it emerged that the show had drawn a record 1.317 million pay-per-view buys, he’d also proven his own worth as a bankable mega-star.