Not that anything would’ve stopped him anyway.
Nate Diaz is a warrior. The sight of him smearing blood away from his face as he came back at McGregor for more will live long in the traumatised memory.
He took punishment – he always does – and he loved it. He always does.
But the American is claiming that he was injured in the build-up to UFC 202 and that it hampered his preparations as he stumbled to his 11th career loss in the promotion.
Straight afterwards though, in an interview with Joe Rogan, he said his training was worse than the first bout with The Notorious – the one he had no training camp for.
“I came into this fight worse off than the last time,” he revealed. “I didn’t get to train, I had an injury.
“F**k that, I didn’t make any excuses but he should’ve finished me off.
“I want number three. I gave him number two so I’m ready to go again. F**k that.”
Watch from 2:18.
He spoke more in depth about the injury to journalists afterwards and almost seemed to be judging McGregor for not winning the fight by knockout.
“I was injured coming into this fight. I’ve got the whole thing on tape: I hurt my knee about a month ago. I wasn’t able to train jiu-jitsu for the last month,” Diaz said.
“And then about two weeks after I was sparring boxing and I really hurt my rib. I got hit in the body, by my partner, a really good boxer. That put me out of sparring about two and a half weeks ago. I got it all on tape, just to set if off and not to make excuses.
“He should have finished me off. If I would’ve been fighting me, I would’ve taken me clean out. That’s my take on the whole fight.”
But he’s not making excuses.
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