"Maybe me and Nate can do it again." Eight short words that swirled in a sea of them at the MGM Grand as the first Saturday of March turned over to Sunday.
Conor McGregor, more adrift in that sea than he had been in his entire professional career, had just caught his breath back after Nate Diaz had choked the air out of his lungs as well as a whole lot of hype and momentum about an hour earlier. The headline bout of UFC 196 hadn't nearly gone as expected.
Against an unplanned opponent in an unplanned weight class, McGregor had looked like a fighter without a plan, or certainly devoid of a plan B. The left hand that had taken him to the top of the mixed martial arts pyramid had bruised Diaz, bloodied him too. But it hadn't brought the Californian down and never looked like burying him.
So with Diaz sitting across from him at the post-fight press conference, his welterweight debut having resulted in the first defeat of his UFC career, McGregor was asked what the next plan would be?
The featherweight world belt still gleaming in front of him, he insisted a return down two divisions to defend the title he had stripped from Jose Aldo Jr would be next, debating whether it would be the Brazilian or the division's most patient contender, Frankie Edgar, who would step into the octagon opposite the Dubliner at UFC 200 this summer.
It will be neither. We now know as much after the UFC confirmed overnight what had been initially uncovered and then widely expected for all of a fortnight now. Instead it's deja vu, Diaz will come into view all over again. Just three weeks after McGregor uttered those seven words, one of them is now redundant. There is no need for maybe.
RT if you're PUMPED for #UFC200!! Diaz. McGregor. Aldo. Edgar. Register at https://t.co/hVKGnw5ifv NOW! https://t.co/tyOVnMi9pY
— UFC (@ufc) March 31, 2016
He and Nate can do it again. They will do it again. But the question on a lot of lips is should they be doing it again?
Those who count numbers in the Ultimate Fighting Championship's HQ will only answer in the affirmative.
They're more than happy for their 200th carnival to have McGregor and Diaz atop the bill on July 9 at the gleaming new T-Mobile Arena on the Strip. Grasped together on less than two weeks notice, their first bout put up nothing but big numbers, bringing in a gate and pay-per-view audience that came dangerously close to breaking the organisation's records.
It was a good fight, but in the shade over nine minutes the two most vaunted trash talkers spent in the cage together, the fighting was only intermittently great. For this observer at least, it was far from the barn burner that some have made out. Which made such a quick reconvening of the parties such a surprise initially.
It had looked like Dana White and Co. - and for that matter, McGregor - were all again casting Edgar and Aldo to one side too. The would-be and used-to-be featherweight titans would have been left grappling in the wind as the division's champion was marked absent for at least another four months.
They'd never admit as much but it's not inconceivable that a lot of the negative reaction that has swirled since news of the rapid rematch first broke convinced the UFC to bring Aldo and Edgar on to the UFC 200 card too, their meeting for an interim featherweight strap also part of the big, belated reveal late Wednesday night on this side of the Atlantic.
With Diaz-McGregor II making immediate financial sense, the inclusion of the featherweight foes will help the UFC argue that it makes logistical sense too. For Diaz, fresh from the biggest pay day of his circuitous combat career, another lucrative, landmark night under the Vegas lights was impossible to ignore. But how much sense this all makes for McGregor is still up for debate.
"The organisation doesn't just want UFC 200 to break records, it wants them obliterated"
Most stark on a night of more than a few realisations at UFC 196, was how blunted his power seemed to be at 170lbs. Had the rematch been fixed at lightweight it would have provided one fresh aspect to proceedings but no, apparently the Notorious one wanted no changes. He demanded as much, according to his coach.
"Conor chased this rematch. That's how it has come about," John Kavanagh wrote in his column for the 42.ie soon after confirmation of the bout. "He ended up harassing Dana White and Lorenzo Fertita on a daily basis for a rematch. This is the fight that's of most interest to him right now."
McGregor is many things. Those who dismiss him as nothing but mouth are as blinded as those who declare him Ireland's greatest sportsman. When all the noise is drowned out, he is an athlete. What is increasingly clear is that there is plenty of truth to his insistence that obsession is what drives him forward rather than talent.
He has obsessed over the nature of his surrender earlier this month. "I'd love to get that one back," was one of his brief offerings in the days after the fight as wounds healed. He's been in enough cages to know that he'll never get that one back. Much like the submission to Joseph Duffy that "ate him alive", defeat to Diaz will feast upon him until it's atoned for. An itch needed to be scratched and fast.
In the same column, Kavanagh spoke of how the first fight offered a treasure trove of material to work on, lessons to be learned. That was clear in the seconds after the fight when the coach reached for factors like 'exhaustion' about a contest that had barely gone nine of its 25 minutes.
Conditioning will be markedly different this time round, so too will strategy, Kavanagh insisted. They had better be. Steaks for breakfast will not make for a redemptive recipe. UFC 200 shapes as a significant date for trainer too. Just two of his seven UFC charges are currently coming off victories in the organisation.
Diaz meantime is coming off the win of a lifetime, achieved on just 11 days' notice. He has revelled - and impressed - in the spotlight since. Now he has three months to prepare to do it all over again, his sturdiness, stamina and submission skills all likely to be strengthened with such forewarning.
Both will still find time for verbal jousting, the tone of McGregor's offerings perhaps shaped by what happened last time out. Perhaps not. There is still a fight to sell after all.
The UFC are already busy bringing fans to the flames. The organisation doesn't just want UFC 200 to break records, it wants them obliterated. Having achieved such success with less than a fortnight's flogging of the first instalment, expect relentless hustling over the next three months. More championship bouts will join the card soon but it will still be the non-title showdown that throws shade over the rest.
The promotional video for their first fight featured a stirring voiceover from rap icon DMX, barking that the meeting of McGregor and Diaz "broke every rule in the book but made all the sense in the world".
For so many observers, their rapid rematch makes a lot less sense than that. Yet for the man who came out the wrong side of things, this is the only thing that makes sense. Who's right? July 9 will tell.
