Sportskeeda MMA Awards 2016: Top 10 Fights of the Year

#7 Nate Diaz vs. Conor Mcgregor 2

McGregor was pushed to the brink to protect his aura, marketability and morale moving forward

Earlier in the year, Diaz had shocked the world by defeating McGregor in a dominant performance but apparently he was not surprised. McGregor was now in a bad spot, to say the least, having been defeated by the number 4 Lightweight in a devastating submission loss.

McGregor's legitimacy to fight for the Lightweight title as a Featherweight Champion was now in jeopardy, unless, he set the record straight and got a one up on Diaz, hopefully in the same dominant fashion as Diaz did.

Heavy is the head that wears the crown.

Another crown with the Lightweight Championship now seemed like a distant dream again and the audience started questioning if McGregor even deserved to keep his well-earned Featherweight title.

The times were dark, McGregor had to make the most important decision of his life; whether he wanted to go back to the 145-pound division or be completely impractical again and compete at a weight division 25 pounds heavier than the one he is the Champion in.

And like a true champion, McGregor didn't even blink an eye to go for the latter. People wondered if his trash talk would be affected since he was essentially owned in the first bout. Instead, he went all in and put all his eggs in this one basket that was UFC 202.

But how could you stop the marketing genius that is McGregor's brain, producing quotable lines at every step?

"You should have killed me when you had the chance," proclaimed Mcgregor with a startling commitment tarnished with a hint of insecurity regarding his abilities, perhaps for the first time in his career.

With a series of entertaining exchanges back and forth in the press conferences, they finally squared off again in a highly anticipated rematch for the ages.

McGregor completely changed his game plan for the fight and outboxed Diaz in a steady five-round battle that had its share of ample domination and momentum shifts. Scoring a number of knockdowns early on, McGregor did well in boxing exchanges but struggled to put up with the high pressure, dirty boxing style of fighting in the clinch.

After almost getting finished in the third round again with a barrage of strikes from Diaz, McGregor did extremely well with maintaining distance later on, also showing off significantly improved takedown defence by even taking Diaz down on more than one occasion.

Ultimately, in a long but extremely entertaining war, McGregor emerged victorious via majority decision, to the relief of his camp and the fans. It is a bleak possibility to imagine watching Conor McGregor lose twice to Nate Diaz. A man who was one of the more underpaid fighters in the UFC.

Fortunately, this leaves the options open for a rubber match. A fight that is almost guaranteed to break all existing PPV records.