Conor McGregor says he won’t punch himself out in rematch against Nate Diaz

UFC superstar Conor McGregor has spent time watching his loss to Nate Diaz in March to learn from his mistakes as he prepares for the rematch Saturday night in the main event of UFC 202 at T-Mobile Arena.

It was a cartoon that most reminded him of Diaz’s strategy in the fight, however.

“Have you ever see that episode of ‘The Simpsons’ where Homer starts boxing?” McGregor asked during a news conference at his gym in southwest Las Vegas on Friday. “He’s in the ring and he’s getting the head slapped off him and the guy (gets exhausted and) can’t punch him any more, so Homer tips him and the guy just falls over.

“That’s the way Nate was in the first fight. He was Homer Simpson and he just took the shots until I couldn’t hit him no more.”

It’s a funny anecdote even if it woefully undersells the performance of Diaz in the first meeting. McGregor did have a great deal of success in the first eight minutes of the bout, but Diaz landed a big left hand that stopped McGregor in his tracks before knocking him down and submitting him with a rear-naked choke late in the second round.

McGregor blames exhaustion and the shock of Diaz not withering under his early onslaught. He believes Diaz will employ a similar strategy this time around, but McGregor is more prepared to deal with it.

“He’s going to be no different,” McGregor said. “He’s going to take the shots and hope I can’t hit him any more, but I will still be there hitting him in the face. I look forward to it.”

Not that McGregor has any plans to slow his pace. He has just changed his training camp up to be better able to sustain his aggression until the job is done.

“I think I’m still going to go after the boy,” McGregor said. “I’m still going to put him against the fence and I’m still going to bust that soft skin up. He might have a rough chin, but he’s still got soft skin, so I’m going to open that face up real nice. The difference is I’ll still be there in the later rounds. I’ll still be at that tempo.”

McGregor is once again running his training camp in Las Vegas. He flew his coaches and a team of training partners out for the duration. McGregor rents two houses for everyone and had a gym set up in an office park off the beaten path.

He has gone through similar large-scale productions for previous camps, but there is something very different this time around as McGregor is coming off his first UFC loss.

McGregor said his unprecedented rise to wealth and stardom changed the life of not only himself, but everyone around him. Even his coach, John Kavanagh, released a book about his life.

While he insists he was still working hard, McGregor said some of the distractions led to things getting a bit complacent and unfocused at times. He would show up at the gym when he wanted and sometimes spend hours and hours training, but not preparing for the five minutes of action followed by one minute of rest that a fight entails. There was also no set rest days planned during a camp, which led to McGregor often panicking when his coaches wanted him to take a day off.

“(The loss) forced us to come back together and do what we’ve been doing from the beginning. Focus. Solid work,” McGregor said. “This time we incorporated structure. I believe structure is the true key to success.

”You can get a reasonable amount of success by just winging it, but I feel to reach the true heights you’ve got to have a structured life and you can’t stray from that. We’ve set training times, we’ve set schedules and we’ve stuck to it and I’ve responded really well.”

While the loss led to physical changes in his camp, McGregor insists he dealt with it fine mentally.

“It’s something that’s part of the game. You’ve just got to take it. It ain’t nice. The highs are very, very high and the lows are low. But you suck it up and break down what went wrong and correct the mistakes,” he said. “This is a crazy, crazy business we’re in. Nobody makes it out of this game unscathed. All you have to do is look through the history books.

“I look back at it and I enjoyed the contest. I made my plans for revenge and that’s it.”

McGregor still has the featherweight belt because the Diaz loss, like the rematch, was contested at welterweight.

Perhaps more importantly, he still feels at the top of his game.

“I feel strong in my mind,” he said. “I always do. I don’t let defeat faze me. The true champions rise again, and I am a true champion.”

He will look to prove it again Saturday night.

Contact reporter Adam Hill at ahill@reviewjournal.com or 702-224-5509. Follow on Twitter: @adamhilllvrj