Nate Diaz offers conspiracy theory on why he’s fighting Conor McGregor at UFC 196

This time next week we will know if Conor McGregor has made a major leap on the road to being a UFC multi-weight legend.

The Dubliner faces off against Nate Diaz in a welterweight fight at UFC 196, after an injury to Rafael dos Anjos nixed his proposed lightweight title shot. The UFC featherweight champion takes on the American in Las Vegas, and has already been giving glimpses into his movement and strategy for the fight at a weight he has never competed at before in the UFC. According to various reports the UFC were sent into a tailspin to try and get a late replacement again for a McGregor fight, after having had to scramble to get Chad Mendes at short notice for UFC 189 after Jose Aldo’s rib injury. But the Stockton native suspects the UFC were always angling for a clash of the two biggest motor mouths in the UFC, and feels that a video from McGregor at the MMA awards last month, dissing Diaz, gave the game away. Speaking to BJPenn.com, the 30-year-old feels that the UFC always had in mind a McGregor-Diaz fight at UFC 196, especially after McGregor spoke ill of most UFC fighters in a video broadcast at the awards last month. However, according to Diaz, the fact that a second video, which was not broadcast, but was leaked afterwards was made, suggest to him the UFC wanted both men to fight next month.

"There was no other option, and they knew they were fighting me already, weeks ago. Why did that video come up a while back? There was a video of him dissing me at the MMA awards but I saw the original video and my name wasn’t in it," he said. "A couple of weeks ago, what happened, they were trying to get a better fight or something, they were already training for me, they know what's up."

Diaz is thought to be an unusual opponent for the 27-year-old Irishman, who is likely to be at a height disadvantage against the Californian. Diaz has outlined how he is going to approach the fight when he gets in the octagon next week.

"It’s a fight, just got to go in there and it’s a case of go in there and kill or be killed you know,." he said. "I might get marked, I don’t care you know, it’s all good. Or he might."