Nate Diaz probably wasn't supposed to beat Conor McGregor at UFC 196. Doubtless McGregor himself didn't expect it to happen. At first gracefully quiet and reflective, McGregor has since attributed Diaz's win to luck. "You might say he won the lotto," he quipped in an episode of UFC Embedded.
But with the rematch just around the corner, it is worth remembering: it was no accident that Nate Diaz was the first man in the UFC to beat Conor McGregor. Much of Conor's talk in the leadup to UFC 202 has focused on what he did wrong.