Diaz vs. McGregor Pick
The anticipated rematch between Nate Diaz and Conor McGregor takes place tonight at UFC 202. Who will come away with the victory?
According to oddsmakers at Bovada.lv, McGregor is the slight favorite, as he has a money line of -130 to win. Diaz comes in with odds of +100 to prevail. Tonight’s fight takes place from the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas. These two will be the main event of a PPV card that begins at 10PM ET.
Diaz (19-10) picked up the win in the first meetings back at UFC 196 in March. After McGregor (19-3) picked him apart in the early stages, Diaz connected on a right hand that stunned McGregor. A poor takedown attempt in desperation by the featherweight champion allowed Diaz to easily get in a choke and secure the win. That fight, like tonight’s, will take place at 170 pounds despite the fact that McGregor is the 145-pound champ and Diaz has spent most of his career at 155 pounds.
McGregor seemed unstoppable prior to UFC 196, as he hadn’t lost since 2010 and was coming off a 13-second KO of Jose Aldo. However, his punching strength didn’t translate over to a bigger fighter like Diaz, who can take a lot of punishment. McGregor’s ability to take a punch also suffered. Diaz took the first fight on very short notice, not having much of a training camp at all. Now he has had a full camp and should be sharper on his feet. McGregor can’t touch Diaz on the ground and the reach he is accustomed to isn’t there against Diaz. While McGregor may do well on the feet early, he isn’t likely to KO Diaz, who has only been stopped by strikes once in his career. Diaz throws punches in bunches and that could tire McGregor, leading to the fight going to the ground at some point in the five rounds. That is where Diaz will once against capitalize and get the win.
UFC 202 FREE PICK: NATE DIAZ +100