UFC Featherweight & Lightweight Champion Conor McGregor has only suffered a single defeat under the UFC banner, which came to Nate Diaz by submission at UFC 196.
McGregor would avenge the loss to Diaz by unanimous decision at UFC 202, but even though the series is even between the two, the UFC apparently did not want Diaz in attendance at UFC 205.
"The UFC knows that's a bad idea for him," Diaz told ESPN. "Why didn't I get tickets to this fight? I said, 'I'll leave him alone. I don't want to fight the guy. Just let me get a seat.' Me and my brother, they didn't want to let either one of us in here. They want to hide me out, I think. Put him on more of a pedestal than they have already. It's whatever though. As soon as [McGregor wins], hundreds of people are turning around and staring at me. I'm like, 'Hey, what do you want me to do? The UFC didn't even want to give me tickets to this fight. I think they gave Nick Jonas my seat."
One of the main reasons that the UFC brass may not have wanted Diaz at the event is due to the inevitable talk of a rubber match between Diaz and McGregor.
"People question me, 'Hey, when you gonna fight No. 3?'" Diaz said. "I know that everybody needs to see that. If I'm gonna do something, that's what I'm gonna do -- but I'm not begging for it. If anybody should be asking for the fight, it should be him. He's the one that has something to prove. Congratulations to Conor. He did a great job, got the two belts -- but I just know that me and him both know what happened in [our] fights and that 'greatest of all time' stuff [to stop]. I don't remember any of the greatest of all times getting worked over like [he was] in the last two fights. I don't want to even do interviews or be a part of any of this bashing the guy, because everybody can't do nothing but hating on the guy for dong this thing, doing his belt thing. If they gave me all that attention and all these opportunities and I would take them, too. So, it's all good."
Diaz has not competed since the decision loss to McGregor at UFC 202.