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Nate Diaz has been vocal about his desire to fight Dustin Poirier and intends to correct the mistake Conor McGregor made in the lead-up to his rematch with the Diamond at UFC 257.
In a recent interview with ESPN, Nate Diaz told host Ariel Helwani that he would not play a 'nice guy' against Dustin Poirier in the build-up to a potential fight between them. Diaz indicated that he would not hesitate from playing mind games with Poirier to mentally break him before they step into the UFC octagon.
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Nate Diaz's remarks make reference to the build-up to the UFC 257 PPV event. Credited by Dustin Poirier as the master of playing mind games, Conor McGregor is one of a handful of fighters in UFC history who have realized the true potential of the mental aspect of fighting.
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Conor McGregor is known for breaking his opponents psychologically to throw them off their game plans in the fight and has also gained a lot of popularity as a result.
But to the surprise of the MMA community, McGregor approached the UFC 257 fight against Dustin Poirier with a rarely-seen-before respectful and humble demeanor.
With Conor McGregor losing the fight via a second-round TKO, many experts and fighters have questioned the efficacy of McGregor's changing approach, including former champion Daniel Cormier.
Nate Diaz thinks stars are aligned for his fight with Dustin Poirier
Nate Diaz and Dustin Poirier were scheduled to fight in the co-main event of UFC 230 in November 2018. But the fight fell through after Poirier injured himself during training.
Nate Diaz has favoured high-profile fights against fighters with big names in recent times. Dustin Poirier's win over Conor McGregor has significantly raised the former's stock, which has rekindled Diaz's interest in fighting his compatriot.
Diaz did not shy away from admitting the same in an interview. However, he also stated that his days at lightweight were over, and he would only accept the fight against Poirier at 165lb catchweight or welterweight.
"Now is the time to fight for sure. We should've fought a long time ago, and now the stars are aligned... because he just won the fight... we're ready for the big fight... I'm not fighting at 155 (lbs), I'll fight probably at 170 or 165, not 155," Nate Diaz told Ariel Helwani.
The fight between Nate Diaz and Dustin Poirier is likely to favour Poirier heavily. That is because calf kicks that Poirier used effectively against Conor McGregor at UFC 257 have long been a major weakness of Diaz, who also tends to lean on his lead leg due to his boxing-heavy fighting style.
Both Dustin Poirier and Nate Diaz are southpaw fighters, which would open up Diaz to an outside calf kick. If that happens, things could go down fairly quickly for the Stockton native, who has not shown significant improvements in his leg-kicking defence throughout his career.
