– Paul Dollery reports from Las Vegas
NATE DIAZ AND Conor McGregor put their differences to one side — for now at least — at the end of an epic encounter here in Las Vegas.
However, Diaz was critical of his opponent for the manner in which he opted to evade danger during their five-round thriller, which headlined UFC 202 at the T-Mobile Arena.
On several occasions, McGregor jogged away from the exchanges to safety when Diaz sought to apply pressure. It was a tactic which clearly irritated Diaz — as did the judging.
McGregor took a majority decision on scores of 48-47, 47-47, 48-47. The Dubliner won the first two rounds, as well as the fourth. The third and fifth rounds went to Diaz, with one judge awarding him a 10-8 in round three.
“I thought I won at least three rounds to two,” Diaz told reporters afterwards. “I didn’t think that was even a question. Obviously I feel like I could have done some better things but I thought I won the fight.
“They gave it to him and I don’t want to sound all bitter because it’s all good — I got paid, it’s all good, you know what I’m saying? — but I don’t think he did much. He did a lot of running in that fight. I’ve been saying, and my brother’s been saying for years, like in Pride, he should have got a yellow card for that type of thing.
He ran the whole fight. You see me chasing him around? I was pointing at him like, ‘Where are you going? Are you scared to engage?’ I feel like they should have took points for that.
“On top of me winning anyway, I think they should have took points, which wouldn’t have let him win the fight. That’s how I feel about the whole fight, the whole situation.”
Diaz also claimed that he had carried knee and rib injuries into the fight: “That isn’t some excuse either. I’ve got the whole thing on tape. I hurt my knee about a month ago so I wasn’t able to train jiu-jitsu for the last month.
“Then about two weeks after that I was just sparring boxing and I really hurt my rib. I got hit in the body… and that put me out of sparring about two-and-a-half weeks ago. I’ve got that all on tape, just to set it off and not make excuses because I’ve got that all videoed up.
“He should have finished me off. If I would have been fighting me, I would have taken me clean out. That’s my take on the whole fight. I don’t mean to sound bitter because it’s all good.”
Diaz and McGregor have already expressed their interest in facing each other for a third time, but on this occasion in the more familiar environs of the lightweight (155lbs) division. Their two bouts so far have been contested at welterweight (170lbs).
Asked when he’d like that fight to happen, Diaz — who insisted that he won’t take any fight other than a rubber match with McGregor — said: “Whenever they’re ready to rock. I’m not doing shit until round three. You’re not going to see me until then.
If they want to set it up as soon as possible, let’s do it.”
Despite some friction between the two camps, which came to a head during a bout of missile-throwing at Wednesday’s press conference, Diaz and McGregor put their differences to one side after the fight.
“The fight was over,” explained Diaz, who had finally scored a takedown on McGregor in the dying moments. “We just fought 25 minutes. He tried, I tried to take each other out and it didn’t get done. It’s like, ‘Hey man, until next time, it’s all good, until we’re set to go again it’s all good’.
“What do you want to me to do — keep kicking the guy while he was down? It’s all good, the fight was over.”
Since they did away with the mindless violence the game has lost its appeal
It’s not really a great spectacle as a sport. Sticking it in TG4 is hardly likely to broaden its appeal. Time to call a halt in my eyes especially when the Aussies could not be bothered to send over a proper team however gallant their intentions were .
“Sticking it in TG4 is hardly likely to broaden its appeal.” Has anyone encouraged you to broaden your horizons?
Some (most) of us don’t speak Irish Louise. Should be commentary in English.
Have more faith in your ability to learn. It’s not all that difficult to listen to and understand the language.
Well considering you don’t have a grasp on the English language, I’m not surprised you cannot speak Gaeilge!! I can see why your glass is half empty, I think you mean “commentary should be through/ in English”… Ah the predictability of….;-)
Deborah,
1. “Well” should be followed by a comma.
2. “…grasp ‘of’ the English language”, not ‘on’.
Smarty pants
Load of crap it looked like Australia hadn’t a clue for the first quarter
Bring back the killings, that’s what made this pointless game for me!!! Zero atmosphere at the game too!!
Will ye relax. Its an opportunity our amateur players get to represent their Country. Reward for all the work and commitment they have given all year.
Well done Ireland and the 3 laois lads! Finish them off the next day.
Honestly it was a poor game. Expect a rough game next week.
Sh!te game.nothing at stake just looked like like a training match.
Pointless game
Patently false. 92 points were scored
If you don’t like this sport then don’t pay any heed to it. Simple.
There was a decent crowd there tonight and clearly sponsors and players embrace the concept so that’s why it’s still going. Nobody is being forced to watch it, if it doesn’t take your fancy that’s fine but there’s no need for everyone to bang on about how they think it’s pointless, just change the channel if it bothers you that much.
If you think the players “embrace the concept” you clearly did not watch the match. The Aussies didn’t even know the rules, and I can’t blame them. I was there and it was clear the lads were only over for a 2 week holiday and I’d do the same myself. Just glad it was only 15eur.
It’s a great game. Fast, exciting and has a well defined tackle, the bane of Football in my opinion. I think if it was marketed well, and played every year, it would be very popular.
The problem is it’s marketed badly.
Having the game on TG4 makes it difficult for non-Irish speakers to follow the rules.
You only hear about it a couple of weeks before it starts.
Having the first game in a regional venue is good in theory but seeing an empty terrance looks bad.
And the break it takes every 3 years is pointless and confusing.
The fact it’s on a Saturday night, is an international sport and is a physical game means it’s very marketable, especially to younger people. Some blood thumping adverts run during the all Ireland finals would generate huge interest and wouldn’t take a huge amount of effort.
I think with a bit more marketing and an attempt to improve the atmosphere, a la Leinster Rugby or American football, would really add to the occasion.
It’s almost as if the organisers, the GAA and AFL, aren’t sure if they want it to succeed or not.
TL;TR It’s a great game that would benefit from better marketing and showmanship.
Whatever about the merits of the game, I think it’s on its last legs, as there is literally zero interest in it in Australia. Even here in AFL-obsessed Melbourne, you wouldn’t know this game was on.
The main quality paper here – The Age – has a 20 page sport supplement every Sat and Sun. During the AFL season about 75% of that space is devoted to AFL. Yesterday (in the AFL off season), there were 2.5 pages devoted to AFL, of which about 1/8 of a page related to the international rules game. Today, there are 2 pages on AFL, with no mention of the international rules other than a single line informing readers that a match report is available online. It really says something when the international rules series is not even the main AFL-related story, at a time of year when there is no actual AFL taking place.
The writing is on the wall when you have a sport that is only relevant to two countries and one of those countries has completely lost interest.
Surely this is more to do with the timing of the game than lack of interest? It would have been impossible to get a match report onto the paper, due to the lateness of the kickoff.
It’s not that I expected a match report in the Sunday Age (obviously – the game took place on Sunday here!). But usually if an event is of interest the papers would have previews and other general coverage.
Anyway, it’s now Monday and the intl rules has been given about the same amount of space as Australian basketball and baseball (neither of which are very popular here). The game wasn’t even mentioned on any of the tv news shows I saw yesterday either.
Better than xfactor but that would not be difficult!!
That match wasn’t even mentioned in the media over here,as for cry factor its on EVERY single ad break,is every 10 minutes.
Bastardised rules. No thanks.
A mongrel game for a …
Every code of football has bastardised rules
Its a pity that genuine amatuer wholehearted GAA players were forced to pick between club and country for a series that the professional AFL pay lip service to
Rubbish sport, Mickey Harte was right
What is the point? It was on in the pub and that’s all I could think about it.
It’s an excuse to go to the pub
Well said. Any excuse is a good one.
We’ll done lad,s
Up Cavan
Welcome to World Trophy Football or wtf for short ,
Feck I missed the semi finals again…
‘Hilarious’
I’d probably watch it if they played the oval ball, atleast give the Aussies a chance since there not allowed to apply mindless thuggery anymore.
I heard there was 275,000 at the match and they were all speaking Irish, even the aboriginals, who probably discovered Australia, having set off from west cork in 6000bc with a cargo of stone hurleys and Gaelic poetry. Long before the British I might add. It’s a matter of great pride to the 42,000,000 members of the GAA. As joe brolly once said “god I’m great ammant I, hi”
Gold
It’s horrendously bad.
Why is this game always played with a round ball? Not very fair on the Aussies is it?
Worst game of football I’ve ever been too!!!
Absolutely dead match…….,
Ah shut up god we are a nation of f##king begrudgers well done lads from all of us in Oz anythime we beat the “worlds most sporting nation” is a good day for me..
Suppose this is the gaa world cup final?