Nate Diaz sends plea to UFC: It’s St. Patrick’s Day, ‘free’ Conor McGregor – ‘This was me for years’

Conor McGregor is having a hard time squaring away his official return to the Octagon and one of his biggest rivals shared some support for “Notorious” on St. Patrick’s Day.

McGregor, who has been recovering from a broken leg suffered at UFC 264 all the way back in July 2021, is finding it difficult to come to terms with Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) regarding his comeback fight. The Irish superstar is expected to fight fellow lightweight Michael Chandler in his return, but the promotion keeps putting it off for one reason or another.

According to McGregor, he’s gone through multiple camps over the past six months to try to get back into the cage. Each time UFC matchmakers fail to get him a fight he loses interest in his return.

“I had a camp in Cannes, the South of France, I had a camp in Dubai where I had world champions training with me where I was hoping for a December date, then a January date,” said McGregor earlier this week. “Then it keeps getting pushed back, then I lose interest and stop full-training for awhile. Not stop training, I will always train, but stop full training and drinking a little back. I’m going to go back and regroup.”

On Sunday, Nate Diaz took to social media to show his support for McGregor. The two have shared the Octagon twice before and rarely see eye-to-eye when it comes to anything related to fighting. However, Diaz is now seeing what is happening to McGregor and his delayed return to action and felt obligated to speak up.

“This was me for years before Conor even got here,” Diaz wrote on Twitter. “They want u to die before u get out these contracts it’s up to u to make something pop no one gonna help you but you Free Conor it’s st pattys day in this b*tch.”

Remember, Diaz desperately tried to fight out his own UFC contract to test free agency, but UFC dragged him along for more than a year. After losing to Leon Edwards at UFC 263 in June 2021, Diaz finally had his final UFC fight at UFC 279 in Set. 2022. The promotion tried to throw him to the wolves by booking him against the undefeated Khamzat Chimaev, but a bad weight cut by “Borz” resulted in Diaz being matched up against Tony Ferguson and winning by submission.

In McGregor’s case, the promotion isn’t going to match him up with a fighter that he has a good chance of losing to. Instead, UFC is buying its time to slot McGregor into the perfect card for the best results (for them). Even if “Notorious” is ready to return to fighting right now UFC is going to try to shelf him until they need him most.

McGregor ended up seeing what Diaz had to say on Sunday and offered up the following response:

“Hahaha my bro! Iconic rivalry must be settled,” wrote McGregor on social media.