Conor McGregor and Nate Diaz were never supposed to fight each other (at least not this year), but when Rafael dos Anjos pulled out of UFC 196, it got the ball rolling for a tremendous rivalry between the UFC’s current lightweight champion and the longtime lightweight contender. Diaz submitted McGregor in March, but then McGregor evened things at 1-1 with a thrilling majority decision win at UFC 202. Both fights took place at 170 pounds, where McGregor had previously never competed prior to this year, and where Diaz had only fought 4 times from 2010-2011.

UFC president Dana White has frequently shut down talk of these two fighting each other for a 3rd time, and he did so again while speaking on ESPN Radio’s The Michael Kay Show. This time around, White cited just what an enormously huge man Nate Diaz is. (Transcription via MMA Fighting)

"The problem with the rubber match is Diaz is a 170 pounder,” White said. “He's a massive guy. Conor is a very talented guy, he's very, very good. Every time he goes out there he looks better... [But] we should have never done it in the first place. That's what weight classes are for. They wanted to do it, we did it. They wanted to do it again, we did it again. They're 1-1.

"There's only so many of those wars you can be in in your career. It takes a lot out of you. Some guys go into wars like that and they're never the same after it. Look at Meldrick Taylor when he fought Julio Cesar Chavez. He was never the same after that fight. We've had those type of fights too. I believe that Rory MacDonald was never the same after the Robbie Lawler fight. That fight ruined him. I don't want to do that to someone special like Conor McGregor. It's just not right."

After McGregor twice went up from 145 to face the monstrous Godzilla-like welterweight in Nate Diaz, who reportedly showed up to their UFC 202 rematch at an unfathomable 415 pounds and gained an extra 3 1⁄ 2 feet in height after the weigh-ins, he challenged Eddie Alvarez for the UFC lightweight title at UFC 205, destroying him in less than 2 rounds to become the UFC’s first ever simultaneous two-division champion. That accomplishment lasted only two weeks, as he “relinquished” his featherweight belt, which now belongs to Jose Aldo.

McGregor is taking some time off as he awaits the birth of his first child, while Diaz, who hasn’t fought at 155 in over 1 year, doesn’t intend on fighting unless it’s a big fight at lightweight or if he’s offered $20 million. It may be a struggle for Diaz to make it to 155 considering he is 3 times the size of McGregor, which makes you wonder how he was able to do it the other 20+ times in his career.