UFC 196 certainly provided a lot of thrills, as the co-main events both lived up to the hype. Holly Holm losing to Miesha Tate was a shock to most people, but Nate Diaz taking down Conor McGregor is something that almost nobody expected.
McGregor made no excuses after the fight and handled the loss well. Because of that, there was an outcry of support for the featherweight champion. Among the people that showed support were UFC star Jon Jones and NBA star LeBron James. McGregor, though, also received support from several non-athletes, not the least of which was pop star Justin Bieber.
Bieber took to Instagram after the fight ended to post a picture of McGregor with the caption "Still the champ," but he wasn't done there. A few hours later, the singer, who has 61 million followers on the website, posted again, this time a video with a caption that reads "No bandwagon but Conor is a true champion, fights with style and finesse, all the respect to Nate but his style is terrible. Nate has crazy heart respect."
Diaz got wind of this video and caption, and he didn't like it very much. The 30-year-old fighter took to Instagram himself on Tuesday and posted a cartoon picture of him slapping the 22-year-old singer/songwriter, saying, "shut your bitch ass up." The welterweight also responded to Bieber's comment about his style with a picture and captioned it, saying, "Biebers a hater."
Diaz came away the winner of the fight, and it was impressive how he took McGregor down and choked him out, but it's McGregor who all the talk has been about post-fight. The win for Diaz, though, was huge not only because it got his name out there for more people than just die-hard UFC fans to hear, but also because he may now get a title shot out of it. Robbie Lawler is the current welterweight champion, and UFC president Dana White said that Lawler defending his title against Diaz next makes sense. Lawler does not have his next title defense set just yet, and Diaz may be the fighter who gets the shot. If Diaz beats Lawler and wins the belt, maybe then Bieber will have more positive things to say about him.
