Nate Diaz has told Michael Chandler not to beat UFC rival Conor McGregor in their upcoming grudge fight later this year.
McGregor and Chandler are currently filming season 31 of The Ultimate Fighter together in Las Vegas before they face each other in the octagon. Former two-weight champion McGregor will look to pick up his first UFC win in over three years when he faces Chandler, who has been calling for a fight against the Irishman since signing with the UFC two years ago.
UFC boss Dana White revealed that McGregor and Chandler were on good terms at the start of filming their reality show but have since had a falling out, with a "lot of s***" going down between them. Chandler bumped into Diaz at UFC 285 this past weekend and said explained why he jokingly told him not to beat McGregor in their fight.
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"He said don't you go winning because we're gonna do something," Chandler told Inside Fighting. "We'll see what happens. "We're about half and half [in his relationship with McGregor] Yeah. We are mutually beneficial opportunists who love to compete against each other. That's where we're at right now. I finish him in the second round, that's a mystic Mike projection."
Diaz has been expected to meet McGregor in a trilogy fight for years with the scores between the rivals at one apiece following their two-fight encounter in 2016. A third fight was put in jeopardy when Diaz left the UFC last September having spent 15 years fighting for the promotion.
It's unclear what took place between McGregor and Chandler whilst filming The Ultimate Fighter, with neither fighter giving any hints of an altercation on social media. Chandler has admitted that he and McGregor don't see eye-to-eye in a lot of ways, but insisted that he still respects his soon-to-be opponent.
"I'm a pretty nice even keel guy but I don't really like Conor McGregor that much," he told The Mac Life. "I've got a ton of respect for him, but he and I don't see eye-to-eye in a lot of ways. That's a lot of competitive chirp." Chandler's comments go against what McGregor said of him just two weeks ago as the Irishman said: "I like Michael, we’re blokes. I’ve got no issues with him at all. I think he’s a good fighter. It will be an interesting one to go against him on TUF before I go against him [in the fight].”
