UFC 196 lost some of its luster when Rafael Dos Anjos pulled out of the championship fight that was supposed to take place as the main event. Conor McGregor was set to go for UFC history and try to earn his second belt but Dos Anjos pulled out due to a broken foot. Dos Anjos's replacement, Nate Diaz, has been causing quite a stir though which has increased anticipation for the fight. Diaz's coach came out and said that McGregor's recent weight gain is "shady" and that he believes he is on steroids, according to Anton Tabuena of Bloody Elbow.
Diaz's trainer, Richard Perez, was echoing Diaz's thoughts from about a week ago when he accused McGregor and the entire UFC of using steroids, according to Marc Raimondi of MMA Fighting. Since Diaz made that statement both UFC president Dana White and McGregor himself have denied these allegations but Perez used McGregor's denial as part of the reason he believes he is using steroids.
"When Nathan mentioned it to him, he got defensive, he got angry. If somebody would have told me that I was fighting and he told me, you know, steroids, I would laugh and say, "yeah give me some more steroids, heck yeah, ah ha sure." But he got defensive and mad, you know, "I'm not on steroids, I'm not on steroids!" You know, he was like trying to defend himself. So that, just his actions and the way he talked, there's something behind that," said Perez.
The basis behind this is the fact that the fight between McGregor and Diaz will be a welterweight bout which is 170 pounds. McGregor is the current featherweight champion (145 pounds) but was set to move up a weight class and fight Dos Anjos at 155 pounds. When Diaz was named as Dos Anjos' replacement the fight was initially going to stay as a lightweight match but Diaz didn't think he would be able to cut enough weight on such short notice, according to James Dielhenn of Sky Sports, so the fight was moved up to 170 pounds.
These allegations are just conjecture right now but if they happen to be true it would be bad news for the UFC as McGregor is one of their biggest stars. For right now though, what these allegations are doing is increasing anticipation for the fight which should be a very good one. McGregor takes on Diaz on Saturday, March 5 in Las Vegas as the headliner of UFC 196.
