Conor McGregor has outlined how he would approach a third fight with his long-time UFC rival Nate Diaz if the pair were to meet again.
Fans have been clamouring over the six years since they met twice, landing a win apiece, but the pair have never been able to have a rubber match in the octagon. And now it seems farther away than ever, with Diaz having recently fought his way out of his UFC contract, leaving the promotion for the first time in around 15 years.
However, the rivals went back-and-forth on social media last night, with McGregor challenging Diaz to a slap fight in UFC boss Dana White's new 'Power Slap' league. In a more serious moment during the exchange, the former two-weight world champion offered up his strategy for the fight, insisting that he would "sprint" from the first bell.
"I telling you bro I been milling people your shape and size and bad," McGregor wrote in a barely legible response to a message from Diaz. "But it's going to be a knock no doubt. I not sure I give a rats fully but I'm going to sprint until I can’t sprint no more in the third fight I don’t care. Opening bell the absolute most power I have on me. Until we’ll see."
Diaz had sent a series of tweets about his victory over McGregor, accompanied with clips from their first fight which he won by submission in the second round. "If submissions weren’t allowed I knocked you out way faster than Floyd did," he wrote first, before adding: "But it was Real So I choked you better and faster than kabob did."
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McGregor took a rare step back in that exchange, responding "respect" with a 100 per cent emoji, before launching into his diatribe about how he would approach their trilogy. Diaz had also joked that he "already beat you at that game too" when McGregor suggested a slap fight, before finishing the exchange by saying "Boom, roasted".
There has always been interest in a trilogy between McGregor and Diaz, who at the time of their second fight had broken pay-per-view records in the UFC. Their first meeting was the highest-selling ever with 1.5million viewers paying to watch the bout, and a further 1.65m buying the rematch. That has since been overtaken by UFC 229 when McGregor faced Khabib Nurmagomedov.