Conor McGregor has praised his UFC rival Nate Diaz for landing a slap on Dillon Danis' friend at UFC 281 last weekend.
Diaz, 37, was in attendance for the Madison Square Garden card in New York to watch Israel Adesanya lose his middleweight title to former kickboxing rival Alex Pereira in the headlining act. The UFC legend, who is no stranger to a scuffle, was swarmed by fans outside the prestigious arena after the event and they had their cameras at the ready as he bumped into Danis, his friend and McGregor's manager Audie Attar.
Danis is a training partner of McGregor's and is notorious for trolling fighters on Twitter, going back and forth with Diaz multiple times over the years largely thanks to his rivalry with McGregor. Attar can be seen pleading with Diaz to not cause any trouble in a clip of the altercation, with the manager telling Diaz that his "kids are here".
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Despite Attar's best efforts, Diaz escalated the situation by putting his middle finger up at Danis' friend whilst stating "I'll f*** you up" before slapping him. McGregor has now praised his UFC rival despite the confrontation involving those who are in his circle, as he wrote: "Haha nice shot" in a now-deleted tweet.
UFC boss Dana White reacted to the incident by stating: "That's a shocker, really? The thing was that, this event has been sold out for a while and Nate called last night wanting six tickets. We didn't have six tickets to give him, so he ended up figuring it out and got some seats. I went over and talked to him tonight, it's all good. Every time they show up I expect something to happen, not much bothers me anymore at this point."
Danis suggested he also landed a slap on Diaz even though video footage would suggest otherwise, tweeting: "Ask Nate Diaz how that smack tastes". Diaz and McGregor have butted heads several times in the past, famously throwing water bottles at each other during the heated press conference for their rematch in August 2016, which McGregor went on to win by majority decision.
It's not the only altercation Diaz has recently been involved in, as he clashed with a member of Jake Paul's crew last month at the YouTuber-turned-boxer's fight with Anderson Silva in Arizona. Diaz attended the event to support his teammate Chris Avila, who beat Doctor Mike in a one-sided fight, but was escorted out after slapping Paul's meditation coach before the main event.
