Why Conor McGregor will Knockout Nate Diaz at UFC 202
Mindset
Conor McGregor is going to be bringing a lot to the table in this heated rematch, but the one thing that is going to stand out from the beginning is his mindset going into this fight. Conor will be looking to rip off Nate's head this fight and it will be epic to see the Irishman thirsty to prove he deserves to be on top of the world and no one else.
Mindset is key in any sport you participate in but fighting has to be one of the sports where having the right mindset is equivalent to half of the fight. You can't go into a fight looking to come out of there with a decision, leaving it in the hands of the judges is completely and utterly disrespectful to the fans and the organization who wants to see the fighter perform.
That's where Conor comes in, the man is an absolute animal in the ring and brings the pressure nonstop to his opponent, no matter where they are on the mat. I have seen him chase people down after hurting them, looking to finish the fight at whatever cost. That's the mindset you need to have coming into the fight, the last fight Conor ran out of gas in the second round and gave up when he took Diaz down to the ground. It won't happen again this time on August 20th.
Thirst
We've seen Conor fight so stagnate the past couple of times he's been in the Octagon. He hasn't been showing the same thirst he had when he was knocking people out in the featherweight division as an up and comer in the UFC. It looked like he had become too comfortable at the top, and was just going through the motions during training and the fights themselves.
Now we're seeing a revamped version of Conor in the gym and during training which is extremely important to witness before going into this rematch with Nate Diaz. It's possible that the abandoning of UFC 200 by not only him and Dana White could be a positive consequence to not showing up for media events. We think that the extra time that the Irishman has had coming into this fight is going to feed his thirst of wanting to pound Diaz into the ground for keeping him away from what he considers the "good life" for so long.
We believe that on August 20th for UFC 202 McGregor will be bringing the heat against Diaz for 5 full rounds. He should be thirsty to get that win back from Diaz and it will likely drive him to the point of insanity leading into the night before the fight. McGregor is the type of fighter who is going to become obsessed with the vision of having his hand raised instead of his opponents, and all Diaz will be to him on August 20th is an obstacle, blocking McGregor from achieving his success.
Stamina
During the last fight between McGregor and Diaz it was clear to see that McGregor ran out of stamina towards the middle of the second round which led into Diaz landing some nice shots on him, eventually causing McGregor to take Diaz down...and we all know what happened from there on out.
If McGregor has been working on anything leading into the fight with Diaz it should be his stamina and core strength. The kid is in outrageously great shape but he will need to test his strength and stamina for this fight and we believe his team and SBG is going to have him ready. If he can try to outlast Diaz into the championship rounds then he will be fine against the Compton native.
We expect that Ido will be back, his movement specialist and coach who has been helping Conor since his time in the UFC begun. Ido is an amazing human being who actually is a doctor in the way that the human body moves and flows. You notice it a lot in Conor's training regimen and of course in the octagon when he is fighting. There have been some critics of the training techniques that Ido has applied to Conor's routine, but in the end, it's the success that matters and Conor has had a lot of it lately. So whether that's because of his stamina training methods, or because of his raw talent, we're unsure, but he is a top pound for pound fighter in the world.
BJJ
There have been so many critics of Conor McGregor's ground game. It's astonishing to think that someone who is considered one of the best fighters in the world, and has put down BJJ specialists throughout the entirety of his professional career and yet there are still those analysts out there that continue to bash his BJJ defense. We would have to disagree with everyone who thinks Conor is weak on the ground, the kid is actually just good enough to stay where he's talented, on his feet and striking.
It's true that two of his losses have come from BJJ submissions but that's nothing compared to the amount of times he has defended take downs, throws and submissions in other fights. If you take a look at his statistics, overall Conor McGregor's ground game isn't terrible and matches up alongside some of the best fighters in the world like Jon Jones. We understand Jon Jones is on a completely other level than McGregor, considering Jones has multiple wins by way of submission, but McGregor shows the same poise in take down and submission defense as Jones displays in his fights.
Conor has also pulled in Dilon Danis who is a world class BJJ specialist and national champion multiple times repeating. In other words, he's brought in the right kind of guy to teach him what he doesn't know and fill in the gaps where Conor is lacking on the ground. In exchange I'm sure that Conor is treating Dilon nicely, whereas Dilon is participating throughout the entire camp with Conor and his SBG buddies such as Artem the Russian Hammer Lobov.