Nate Diaz shocked the world when he defeated Conor McGregor at UFC 196 with a rear naked in round 2. It was McGregor’s first loss under the UFC banner.

Fans of McGregor have argued that the extra weight put on by McGregor affected his stamina as he seemed to gas out in round 2. Others have said that he didn’t have enough time to train for Nate Diaz as he had been preparing for Dos Anjos.

McGregor’s coach John Kavanagh gave his view on the reasons for McGregor’s loss to Nate Diaz.

From his Interview with Ariel Helwani of MMAFighting.com :

“Yeah, a lot of things were working. I did think that he maybe was loading up a little on his left hand, especially when you’re facing a same stance fighter. Nate’s kind of good at using that shoulder roll that boxers do to defend themselves. A lot of big lefts that weren’t catching him flush. They were kind of bouncing off his shoulder, or Nate was moving with the shot so weren’t having the impact they’d have on an opposite stance fighter or someone who wasn’t as highly skilled as Nate. 

“But still, some good shots landed. He did get taken down by a single leg by Nate, but I thought Conor did very well, he executed a nice sweep and was taking the guard, almost passed and landed some good shots. So, all in all, it was a good round. I imagine the judges gave that round to Conor. I can’t see how it would have went otherwise.”

“That was pretty much all I said between round was, you don’t have to take him out with one shot, no need to load up on that big hand,” he said.

“If there was something to critique or take away from that fight, I think Conor almost immediately said it much better than I’m able to say, is that he was inefficient with his job and Nate was efficient. And that’s what I was trying to get across, and that’s what we saw happening. He kind of blew himself a little bit trying to take his head off with every single left hand rather than just landing it. Maybe I could have stole his own phrase and told him to keep it flowing.”
“I think there was a good left cross, and it kind of stumbled Conor back,” he said. “I kind of think it was really exhaustion at this stage. He looked really, really tired. 

“At that stage it was clear that he was very, very tired. And if there’s one thing you’re never going to say about a Diaz brother is that he gets tired. He just has that incredible ability to just keep going and keep pushing themselves. They [Nate and Nick] are phenomenal athletes, the two of them. So I thought that tiredness and him being pushed back was when I was worried.”

“I’m with Conor a long, long time and I’ve seen him do an inordinate amount of rounds in the gym,”