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LAS VEGAS, Nev. – In the presence of – and sometimes obscured by – one of the greatest insult comedians of all time, Albuquerque’s Holly Holm and Miesha Tate, Holm’s opponent, faced the media Thursday for the final time before their fight Saturday night.

Unlike Conor McGregor and Nate Diaz, who sparred verbally and almost came to blows at the conclusion of Thursday’s news conference, Holm and Tate are saving their jabs for the octagon.

As he habitually does, McGregor dominated Thursday’s gathering at the MGM Grand – skewering Diaz, his opponent in Saturday’s main event at UFC 196, with a nonstop, often vulgar but highly creative stream of invective. Muhammad Ali in his trash-talking prime might have had more class, but not as great a range.

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“I’m going to eat his carcass (Saturday) in front of his gazelle friends,” McGregor said at one point.

Saturday

UFC 196: Conor McGregor vs. Nate Diaz, Holly Holm vs. Miesha Tate, other fights, MGM Grand Garden, Las Vegas, Nev. TV: Pay-per-view, 8 p.m.

Diaz responded, as he generally did during the 30-minute session, with obscenities. The news conference, at least, was no contest.

Holm (10-0) and Tate (17-5) did field their share of questions, and Tate said she generally enjoyed the back-and-forth between Diaz and McGregor.

“They’re pretty awesome, right?” Tate said. “They’re over here flipping each other off, and Holly and I are making each other friendship bracelets.”

Tate’s remark got a laugh from the media and the fans in attendance, but drew not even a smile from Holm.

The UFC women’s bantamweight champion, in fact, didn’t seem to enjoy the insults McGregor and Diaz tossed at each other – fidgeting in her chair.

Holm did, though, crack a smile at two comments from McGregor that weren’t aimed at Diaz.

Asked who he’d most like to fight – his dream fight – McGregor said in his Irish accent: “I’d love to fight myself.”

Later, McGregor was asked whether there had been any significance to the act of shaving his head after his first-round TKO of Jose Aldo in a UFC featherweight title fight in December.

“It signifies nothing, man,” he said. “I was looking in the mirror and saying, ‘I don’t want to wake up, my hair’s (bleeping) annoying me.’ … That’s all it signifies.”

THE PRESSURE DEBATE: Holm has never denied that she feels pressure before a fight, and addressed the subject again Thursday.

“Every fight has a lot of pressure, because I put it on myself,” she said.

She never felt, she said, that she had nothing to lose as a prohibitive underdog against undefeated champion Ronda Rousey in November.

“I said (at the time), ‘I put a lot of hard work in. I have everything to lose,’ ” she said. ” ‘I don’t care what the odds say in the paper, I think I’m capable of winning this fight.’ ”

Now, as the favorite in her first title defense against Tate on Saturday, Holm said: “The expectations are even higher, so there’s even more pressure, maybe from everybody else, but still the same pressure I put on myself.”

Tate said her approach is entirely different.

“I hate the word pressure, really, because I feel like it’s indicative of something negative,” she said. “I feel confident in this fight, and I feel like there’s just a lot of positive motivation going into this fight.”

Holm also addressed the pressure that came – or could have come – from the media responsibilities and the far higher public profile that came her way after the victory over Rousey.

“I guess I don’t really think about it too much,” she said. “I just want to go in and win. That’s what I wanted from my last fight, and that’s what I want to do for this fight.

“I think in doing so, being passionate about winning, that’s what I love to do. I love to fight. That’s what I’m here for.”

NEVER TELL THEM THE ODDS: The Holm-Tate betting line makes the Albuquerquean a solid favorite.

The line on Holm quoted on one website was minus-345, meaning a bet of $345 would produce a $100 payoff if she wins.

Conversely, a bet of $100 on Tate, should she win, would produce a payout of $285.

SANCHEZ SAYS: Diego Sanchez, Holm’s longtime teammate, said Tate certainly has a chance to upset his friend and training partner.

“Everybody has a shot in a fight,” said Sanchez, who will face Jim Miller on Saturday’s undercard. “That’s the game. That’s just the fight game.”

But, he said, a Tate victory is absolutely not his prediction.

“I’ll tell you right now,” Sanchez said, “I know for a fact that Miesha is not in the level of conditioning and shape that Holly Holm is.”

Holm, Sanchez said, has an unquenchable appetite for conditioning.

On top of that, he said, Holm is “a freak of nature. Genetically, just blessed.”