Conor McGregor has fought some of the best fighters of his generation – but Nate Diaz gave him his toughest test.
Only five men have been able to defeat McGregor (22-6) during his illustrious career: Artemij Sitenkov, Joseph Duffy, Diaz, Khabib Nurmagomedov and Dustin Poirier (twice).
First-round submission losses to Sitenkov in 2008 and Duffy in 2010 happened way before his prime and his subsequent reign of dominance in the UFC.
In the years that followed those setbacks, McGregor won his next 15 fights and became a UFC featherweight champion by dethroning Jose Aldo in 2015.
He then set his sights on becoming the first simultaneous two-weight champion in the company’s history by challenging lightweight king Rafael Dos Anjos in March 2016.
However, RDA pulled out of the contest with a foot injury, resulting in Diaz stepping in to save the card.
Against all the odds, Diaz scored a monumental upset by locking in a rear-naked choke in the third round and forcing the tap.
Five months later, when they ran it back, McGregor edged out a narrow majority decision win.
But he still attests to the fact that no one gave him a harder night than the Stockton MMA fighter.
Asked who the ‘toughest opponent he’d ever faced was’ in a Twitter Q&A in 2022, the Irishman replied: “Nate.”
Diaz didn’t heap the praise back onto McGregor when the same question was posed to him last year.
“I always say it, but there’s a guy that I fought [in 2008] named Josh Neer,” said Diaz.
“He’s a motherf*****. He’s my boy now though, we’re homies.
“But Josh Neer fought my brother and they was fighting for three rounds, hard, and Nick’s doing his thing, hitting him a lot, and I was like ‘This f****** guy is crazy.’
“And then Nick ended up finishing him in the third round though, most people Nick finished were all in the first round and maybe the second round.
“Time went by, and then he went down to 155 where I was fighting at. And I asked for a better opponent.
“I was beating people – that’s when I first got to the UFC, I beat a few people.
“And so they gave me Josh Neer, who was one of the top five guys. That’s right when I started to fight top people. And it was my hardest fight.
“I watched him fight so much, and then trained so perfect for him that everything was like – he’d throw punches, I slipped it right under it, grabbed him and everything.
“But he countered everything and it was like if you watch that fight, me versus Josh Neer, it’s a hundred miles an hour. It’s a good fight.”
And it was Diaz who emerged victorious over Neer, edging out a split decision.
