Conor McGregor reflected on one of his most famous victories this morning while smoking a "big blunt" and watching Amanda Nunes defeat Julianna Pena at UFC 277.
The similarities, McGregor felt, were striking between his series of fights with Nate Diaz in 2016 and Nunes' recent pair of bouts with Pena for the bantamweight title. At the time when both were stepping into their respective fights, he and Nunes were heavy favourites to dispatch of Diaz and Pena.
But the upsets arrived in the second round of both bouts after dominant opening sessions for the favourites. And McGregor even noted that they were both rear naked chokes, leading he and Nunes to switch things up in their camps and reassess before coming for dominant decision victories in the rematches.
"It's mad to me the similarity of last night's ladies' bantamweight world title fight rematch to mine with Diaz," McGregor noted in a lengthy voice message to fans on Twitter. "The McGregor-Diaz fights.
"Fight No.1; a highly-touted, the GOAT [Greatest of All Time] of the sport, me and Amanda Nunes. Sheer toughness, willingness to fight and caught off guard, we eat a couple of shots, give a couple of shots, then eats a couple of shots and the tide turns and then gets choked."
He continued to note how it wasn't just the first fights that were similar, but the second as well. Both fights will go down in history as some of the greatest upsets in modern MMA history, and led to massive rematch wins for he and Nunes.
"Now the return, the rematch," he continued. "Confidence on the other side, tenacity and toughness, all of that is still there, more focused work on Nunes and my side. Now I'm neither 'side', I'm a fan of both women, a huge fan of both of those women' Amanda Nunes and Julianna Pena, and everyone who steps inside that f***ing octagon and makes the walk, to be honest.
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"The original bout had 'I'm not surprised motherf***ers,' [Diaz's famous first words in his post-fight interview]. Then again, Julianna says it and then the fight goes the exact same way in the second fight.
"They're dropped multiple times, better prepared, cracks the shots, gets the drop multiple times, but then the toughness is just still there, still in Amanda's face, still in my face, some fights they are. They're iconic Mixed Martial Arts bouts that we're all lucky to witness and it's a mad ol' scene."
McGregor also checked in on Anthony Smith, who broke his leg in his undercard bout with Magomed Ankalaev, similarly to his own in his trilogy with Dustin Poirier last summer at UFC 264. He also praised Brandon Moreno for his knockout win over Kai Kara-France.
"Congrats to all the great goers out there, it was a great watch and I enjoyed it thoroughly," McGregor said before declaring that he had enjoyed a "fresh kill" for breakfast on his plush Lamborghini yacht. "Coffee is en route, few hits of a blunt, big blunts!" he added.
