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Cape Town - Conor McGregor has nothing on his mind but revenge. Set to take on the man who beat him at UFC 196, Nate Diaz, he looks to get his vengeance at UFC 202 in the highly anticipated rematch.
Speaking at a night dedicated to his head coach John Kavanagh's new book, "Win or Learn", McGregor is more than confident that this second fight will be a different story.
"I'm feeling very confident in myself that I'll go in and I'll toy with this man," McGregor said. "Eight minutes of the fight, I was toying with him. That fadeaway left hand that he caught me with, my senses were still there. It was almost like a fatigue thing that my balance was gone.
"I always look back and question and say, what would have happened if I would have just weathered the storm? He was one or two shots being done, I feel. I feel when that left hand hit, he got this burst of energy. You can see it in his corner, they went insane. It was like they won the lotto. Then I took a couple shots and I shot [for a takedown] and I ended up in that guillotine and then it was just downhill from there. I wonder what would have happened if I just kept my hands up, I kept circling, took the smacks and survived. Eventually his energy that he gained from that left-hand shot would have dipped again and then round three would have began. There's a lot of questions and stuff I'm confident I can improve next time. I'm going in here confident that I will get this rematch back."
Ahead of the second fight McGregor has made some adjustments bringing in Brazilian jiu-jitsu specialist Dillion Danis who is a Marcelo Garcia black belt. Also on the list of adjustments are bringing in boxers who are able to mimic the unorthodox style of Nate Diaz
"I didn't actually bring in any southpaws -- not one," McGregor said. "I didn't spar with any southpaws, because the reason we don't really care what the opponent is doing is because they always pull out, every damn time. But this time I know Nate is gonna show up. I know I'm gonna be facing a tall, lanky southpaw with a decent lead hand. And that's it. And now I have brought in tall, lanky southpaws with a solid lead hand, guys with solid jiu-jitsu credentials and John is overlooking every session, managing every session."
McGregor (19-3) seemingly knows the importance of the second meeting with Diaz. Making significant training and dietary adjustments ahead of the fight he is fully confident that they will pay off and he will avenge his only UFC loss to date.
