Michael Bisping Believes Conor McGregor Would Be 'B-Side' of a Rubber Match With Nate Diaz

Despite not fighting in almost three years, it seems Nate Diaz is more popular than ever after his successful return to the Octagon, where he outclassed former lightweight champion Anthony Pettis earlier this month at UFC 241 to win via unanimous decision.

Diaz’s last Octagon appearance before the Pettis fight was his rematch with Conor McGregor in August 2016, which he lost by a razor close majority decision. Diaz then took a hiatus from fighting, citing dissatisfaction with the UFC for not promoting him enough, particularly for not pushing for a trilogy bout against the Irishman. According to Diaz, the promotion bent over backwards to get McGregor a rematch bout after the Irish superstar was submitted by Diaz in their first fight but after the Irishman won the rematch bout the UFC went quiet.

Fast forward to 2019 and Diaz’s stock is riding high, and the talk of a trilogy fight against McGregor has surfaced again.

Former UFC middleweight champion Michael Bisping weighed in on a potential trilogy fight between Diaz and McGregor on his “Believe You Me” podcast and speculated that Diaz’s popularity may have eclipsed that of McGregor since their last fight:

“Conor would be the B-side in that fight right now,” Bisping stated. “In terms of popularity, I don’t know; I think Diaz may have surpassed him. He played that perfectly. He took three years away from the sport, came back [and] didn’t get the push from the UFC. [He] kind of, like, went up against the UFC, he was kind of that guy and came out on top. He won that battle, he was sensational [and] the fight was fantastic. The performance was great, he handled himself in a way that people love. He’s real, he’s authentic.”

A trilogy bout featuring Diaz and McGregor is unlikely to happen anytime soon, however, as Diaz is set to take on Jorge Masvidal after he called him out in his UFC 241 post-fight interview.