Joe Rogan On Nate Diaz vs. Conor McGregor 2

Train by day, Joe Rogan podcasts by night, all day. They come in, they weigh in, then once we record it, make sure they're cool, they can rehydrate and they have many, many more hours to rehydrate. So guys were rehydrating six hours earlier. Most of the guys showed up at 10 a.m. They made weight and then they had way more time. So when you saw people stand on the scale, I was saying official weight when I was announcing it. They had weight in at 10 o'clock in the morning. So it was already four in the afternoon. These guys were hydrated and thick. No one looked sick. So at least visually, no one looked like Conor McGregor looked when he fought Chad Mendez. When they weighed in, he looked like a dead man. It's a different person. Doesn't he look like a dead man? His cheeks were all sucked in. It looks horrible. I mean, look, he did good in the fight. Yeah. But he really did. He cuts a lot to get to 145. He's a big boy. Yeah, he's a big boy. He's way bigger than like Jose Aldo. And Jose Aldo was cutting a lot at one point in his career. And by the way, I've never, and I'm a hardcore fan, I've never enjoyed a fight more than I enjoyed Nate Diaz, Conor McGregor. I've never lost my mind so much at the end of the fight. I mean, I'm like a huge Diaz fan. Yeah. And that was just incredible. I mean, on 10 days notice. Yeah. Well, that whole two car or that two fight event, the two fights, the final fights, the Holly home Misha Tate was one of the most exciting endings to any fight ever. When Misha took Holly down in the fifth round, a fight which she was losing, took her back and choked her. That's insane. I read an article today where someone was saying that Misha had lost virtually every second. It was from a guy I respect, a writer. No, she won the second round. I was like, what are you talking about? The second round, she took her down and pounded her. Didn't they give her a 10-8? Yes. Did they just give her a 10-8? And they should. She dominated. So I read this article, this is ESPN writer wrote it, and I was like, wait a minute, man. Come on, you can't say that. Why are you saying that? That's silly hyperbole. It doesn't even make any sense. And Misha was threatening in the third and fourth after that. Holly was on her bike. Fuck this. She was fighting perfect and super cautious with no chances and barely winning those rounds. Just winning them, but barely winning. Nothing big happened and definitely no threat. So that victory when Misha Tate choked out Holly and Holly's punching in the air, how fucking dramatic is that? Going out cold, punching in the air while she's going out. And then Nate beating up Connor in that second round after he gets fucked up in the first round, beating him up in the second round and then choking him. Insane. Probably two of the most exciting finishes to any fight ever. And the Connor thing was just insane because he was on a tear. That was one of the biggest tears in MMA history. And to watch it go down like that, especially like you said, he was winning the fight and then Nate turns it around. And it was almost like on the drop of a dime, Nate came to life in that second round and starts talking shit. It was really fun in a home for the jab. Then he hit him with that big one too. And it was like, oh. Nate has a snake like one too, too. He like whap whap. And then he like slithers around. You can't find him with a counter. He's really good. And there's no one worse than Nate or Nick Diaz to get hurt by in a fight. Because once they hurt you, they just like they push a pace. And then when you get hurt, they like pick it up and pick it up. And then all of a sudden, I mean, before you know it, Connor's hit like 25 fucking times on the feet and he's shooting for a takedown. Those guys are always doing triathlons. So even though Nate is like he was taking that fight in 11 days notice and he wasn't in shape, he's still in way better shape than most people. So like him going five rounds is not unfeasible. It's not outside of the realm of imagination. He's in shape. He's just not in the kind of shape that he's going to be when they have a rematch. And that becomes a real fucking problem. Dude, I think he's going to beat him up again. Well, what Nate said, he goes, he goes, if I had a camp, he wouldn't have fucking touched me. He goes, my plan was to go out slow in the first round. And he came out fast in the first round. So I got tagged a couple of times, but that's so cool. That's cool. Stick to the plan. Stick to the plan. And then the second round, I started loosening up and opening up and Connor was just dead. Yeah. Well, I heard, I mean, people were talking to Nate about, uh, cause you know, going into that fight, like Connor's power was what a lot of people were talking about. Like, you know, he put one punch on Jose Aldo's chin and he's out and he's talking. He's like, they can't handle my power. I don't do forces as well. But, uh, and Nate was saying in one of the post-fight interviews where he was like, look, I'm sparring with Andre Ward and Joe Schilling and like heavyweight boxers. I'm doing rounds with heavyweight boxes. There's nothing you're going to hit him with that he hasn't seen or kind of dealt with when he's, I mean, you know, like talking like Andre Ward and Joe Schilling, like decent strikers saying literally the best, the best, the best in boxing and the best in kickboxing. Well, Joe Schilling cuts weight to kick box at 185 pounds and knocks dudes dead, dead with one punch. So that guy is sparring with Nate on a regular basis. Andre Ward, who is one of the best fucking boxers on the planet earth, one of the slickest, said that Nate gives as good as he gets when they spar. Yeah. Yeah. That's crazy. And I think Joe Schilling, I might be getting there, but I think Joe Schilling said he's never hurt either one of them in a sparring session. I think he said that on, uh, on Fighter and the Kid. Yeah, I believe it, man. Tough fucking dudes, man. Tough fucking dudes. But what, what's fascinating to me is that he wanted to jump right back in there and do it again and that Nate wanted to, or that, um, Connor wanted to just run it back and I was like, wow, that's interesting. It seems weird that he gets to do that. Not so much that he wants to, but it just seems weird that they were like, uh, like even when Dana White was talking about it and he was like, look, man, we tried to convince him to go down to 145 and he was like Nate's the old, I was like, wait, he's the matchmaker now. He just gets to go. But wouldn't you let him if you're, if you want to make a ton of money, right? I believe in the market. Yes. And that guy is that guy's what people want to see. He can do what he, he can do whatever he wants to do. But it's not just that the emperor has been stripped down. Okay. So now he's exposed. So now someone's beaten him. So here's the thing. What do you do now? You want to make money? Okay. Cause if you want to make money, make the biggest fight you can right now while he's been exposed and the biggest fight for sure is when I say exposed, I don't mean he's not talented. I mean exposed, meaning he's a human and he can lose. And that happens with every fighter they lose. And once they lose, people go, Oh, you can be beat. You know, we saw with Anderson Silva, you saw with Mike Tyson when after Mike Tyson fought Buster Douglas, it was a different world. Everybody was like, Oh, he's human. So I say exposed, not in a disrespectful way, but got exposed. He lost, he got choked out, got beaten up on the ground and then he got choked out quick. So this is not an invulnerable, perfect fighter who's unbelievably durable, right? Who can take punishment like no man. There's a lot of those guys in the UFC. There's champions like that in the UFC that are like Robbie Lawler, unbelievably durable. You can't put him away. It's fucking hard to put that guy away. We're not talking about that. We're talking about a guy got dinged up, shot for a shitty wide open takedown, got taken down, got demolished on the ground and got choked unconscious quickly afterwards. So all right, what do you do? Could that happen with dos Angeles? Fuck yeah, it could. Dos Angeles could do that too. It's possible. I mean, Connor might knock them out. You never know Connor does have that punch, but you got to put him in there. And against Nate again, because that's the big money rematch. And if this guy turns out to be a guy who's going to win some and lose some and the beginning of his career, this unbeatable wild Celtic warrior character, that's all gone. But he's champ. He's still got a belt at 145. Yeah. So it's almost kind of a weird position for now. But I mean, here's my question. When I say for now, can he really keep making that weight? That's what I'm saying. Well, I've wondered about that too. Some people have argued with me saying like, no, he can make the weight because he was one 69 against Nate. So they're saying he basically that's what he starts at and he can just cut down from there. That's a lot. But look what he looked like at the weigh in. So maybe he can. I mean, he kind of he definitely can do it. It's physically possible. I was so looking forward to the press conference, though, just because I can't you know, you've got this guy in Connor who's like the ultimate shit talker. And then you've got Nate who I mean, the first the dynamic at the first press conference was amazing. Yeah, it was amazing. At that moment when he was just like kind of talking circles around Nate and Nate just broke and he goes, how about this? Fuck you. Fuck your belt. Fuck this press conference like they just went gangster on him. But now like how can Connor I was so interested, like how can he show up and talk shit like that? Yeah. When Nate's got the perfect rebuttal that anything he has to say, I beat John 10 days. Guys are saying all kinds of crazy stuff like the first eight minutes were easy. What? Yeah, but here's the difference between the first eight minutes and the last three minutes. The last three were a lot worse. Yeah, they were awful. Like you got fucked up, man. You got to just accept that. But that's part of his thing is that he has to like look at things in the most positive light possible. And man, I don't know. I think stylistically, it's a troublesome fight for him because Nate is a very clever boxer and his ground game is a world away from where Connor is right now. And I've seen Nate roll with guys. He's a fucking legit, very high level Brazilian jiu jitsu black belt under a very respected camp. His cardio is outstanding. His boxing is nasty. So where's Connor shining? The only way I think, I mean, I guess there's like, you know, it's really hard to like fight a Diaz brother and beat them. You know, usually when people beat them, it's kind of like they really stick to a strategy. You got to kind of take them down and avoid submissions or like leg kick and circle. Like Dosanjos beat him up in that way. But you know what? There's also different show up. There's also, you know, different camps. You know, you're coming in. Who knows what kind of fucking injuries you're dealing with? You know, you see a guy like Nate come in and look really kind of lackadaisical against Jaffa Dosanjos. Then you see him come back and look shredded against Michael Johnson and look sensational. So you go, OK, that's what he's capable of when he's on in focus. You got to be ready for that guy. And I think that yeah, that's the best he's ever looked at Michael Johnson fight. Yeah, you can't think that the guy who lost Dosanjos is showing up. You got to think the guy that came out and swarmed cowboy in the first round is coming. Like that guy is a clever fucking boxer. So where does Connor shine? Knockout power. That's where he shines. Like Connor can dead dudes. He can. But he couldn't do it. Yeah, they're tough to hit. They have great head movement and great chins and they roll with punches. Well, the only guy that ever stopped Nate was Josh Thompson. Josh did it with a brutal head kick. And Josh Thompson to this day I say is one of the most underrated guys. The Stars did not align for him, but he could have easily been a UFC champ. He was champ in a strike force. Yeah. And with Gilbert and him and Gilbert went back and forth. Josh Thompson's world class fighter. So when Josh Thompson head kicked him, it's like Josh could do that to anybody in that division. If he catches you, you're fucked. He's older now and he's just I think he's a guy that like I said, the Stars didn't like perfectly align for. But like skill wise and technique wise, he's a fucking world class fighter. So when he knocked out Nate Diaz, it's not necessarily an indication that Nate Diaz is done because just, you know, that's how good Josh Thompson is. Yeah. And at the time and then so Nate rebounds from that. And I think people you look at like the losses like the dos anjos fight and you look at that, the Josh Thompson fight and you go, hmm, how good is he? You know, I could beat that guy. But then you look at the Michael Johnson fighting and go, whoa, that guy is fucking dangerous. Jim Miller, Cerrone. Exactly. A lot of these fights where he was just unbelievable. Yeah. And I think it's one of those things where styles make fights and, you know, kind of really gotten people's heads by talking shit. And I felt like going in, I was like, I don't think you're going to get Nate's head by talking shit. He's not that guy. Yeah. How about this? My crew will fuck up your whole crew. That's the most gangster thing you could say, by the way. That's the most gangster thing because he's literally just going, we'll fucking jump you, dude. Like we're not like we're not playing around here. Yeah. And all those guys, even the guys who seem like kind of nice guys in his team, like Jake Shields, you feel like he'll fucking jump you. Like those guys are, don't fuck. Yeah, he's a vegetarian and he'll kick your ass.