Controversy

McGregor vs. Diaz 2 Scorecard: Did Conor McGregor Really Beat Nate Diaz at UFC 202?

Diaz landed two more significant strikes and one judge called it a draw. McGregor had the three knockdowns, and they decided the fight.

By Jashan Oct 19, 2026 · 8 min read

At a glance

1ResultMcGregor by majority decision - 48-47, 48-47, 47-47
2The judgesDerek Cleary, Jeff Mullen and Glenn Trowbridge; referee John McCarthy
3The differenceTrowbridge scored round 3 10-8 for Diaz, which turned his card into a draw
4The statsSignificant strikes 166-164 to Diaz; three knockdowns and 40 leg strikes to 9 for McGregor
5The media14 of 19 media scorecards on MMADecisions had McGregor winning, four a draw, one Diaz
6Our card48-47 McGregor

What was at stake

Five months earlier the two had met at UFC 196 on March 5, 2016. Nate Diaz had stepped in on less than two weeks' notice after the lightweight champion Rafael dos Anjos withdrew from his fight with McGregor with a broken foot, and the bout was made at 170 pounds, welterweight, because Diaz had no time to cut weight. ESPN, UFC.com and MMATorch all report the switch. Conor McGregor, the featherweight champion, was submitted with a rear-naked choke at 4:12 of the second round. It was his first loss in the UFC.

McGregor wanted the rematch at the same weight. ESPN reported that he wanted 170 pounds again "so that nothing would be different from their first fight", and MMATorch reported that his manager said the same. The fight was first booked for UFC 200, but the UFC pulled McGregor from that card in April after a dispute over his media obligations, which ESPN and City AM both describe, and rebooked it as the main event of UFC 202. The build-up ended with a news conference three days before the fight at which bottles and cans were thrown both ways, according to ESPN and Sherdog. Both fighters were later disciplined by the commission, and the penalties were eventually settled at $25,000 and 25 hours of community service for McGregor and $15,000 and 15 hours for Diaz.

The disclosed purses were $3 million for McGregor and $2 million for Diaz, which ESPN and Sherdog both report.

The official scorecards

Each judge's card, round by round, from MMADecisions. Fox Sports reports the same rounds for Cleary and Mullen and the same 10-8 third round for Trowbridge, which SportsJOE also reports. Scores are written McGregor first.

Judge	R1	R2	R3	R4	R5	Total
Derek Cleary	10-9	10-9	9-10	10-9	9-10	48-47
Jeff Mullen	10-9	10-9	9-10	10-9	9-10	48-47
Glenn Trowbridge	10-9	10-9	8-10	10-9	9-10	47-47

Referee: John McCarthy. Bold marks the only score that was not 10-9.

The three judges agreed on every round. All of them gave McGregor rounds 1, 2 and 4 and Diaz rounds 3 and 5. The whole difference between a unanimous and a majority decision is one number: Trowbridge decided that Diaz's third round was dominant enough to be worth 10-8, and the extra point made his card a draw.

Round by round

Round 1 - McGregor (all three judges)

McGregor opened with kicks to Diaz's legs, which ESPN, UFC.com and Sherdog all describe, and the official count shows how many landed: 17 of his 19 leg kicks. A left hand then put Diaz down, as ESPN, UFC.com and Sherdog report, and Diaz got back to his feet. McGregor led the round 34-25 in significant strikes, with the only knockdown.

Round 2 - McGregor (all three judges)

Diaz went down twice more in the second round, according to the official statistics, ESPN, UFC.com and Sherdog. But McGregor slowed late in the round, and Diaz pushed him back to the fence with combinations, which UFC.com and Sherdog both describe. The numbers show the swing: Diaz out-landed McGregor 37-34 in significant strikes and 51-36 in total strikes, 13-3 in the clinch and 14-5 to the body. Two knockdowns were enough for every judge to give McGregor the round.

Round 3 - Diaz (all three judges; Trowbridge 10-8)

McGregor was tired, and Diaz took over: ESPN and UFC.com both describe him slapping at McGregor and taunting him. This was the most one-sided round of the fight: Diaz landed 49 significant strikes to 26, 40 to the head against 17, and 79 total strikes to 37, and he out-landed McGregor 31-4 in the clinch. He also tried two takedowns, neither successful. Trowbridge scored it 10-8; Cleary and Mullen scored it 10-9.

Round 4 - McGregor (all three judges)

McGregor found a second wind, which Sherdog and UFC.com both describe, and out-landed Diaz 33-17 at distance. Diaz was bleeding near his right eye, according to UFC.com and a PA Media report, and he spent stretches of the round holding McGregor against the fence, which ESPN and UFC.com both report. McGregor led 46-36 in significant strikes and 30-22 to the head, his best round by volume. Diaz had 1:07 of control.

Round 5 - Diaz (all three judges)

Diaz kept trying to take McGregor down, and after missing earlier attempts he landed one in the final seconds, which ESPN, UFC.com and Sherdog all report. The round was the closest on the numbers. McGregor landed more significant strikes, 24-19, and more to the head, 18-12. Diaz landed more strikes in total, 49-34, had 2:42 of control and the only takedown. All three judges gave Diaz the round. After the horn Diaz helped McGregor to his feet, which ESPN and UFC.com both note.

What the numbers say

The official statistics, round by round (McGregor first):

Round	Knockdowns	Sig. strikes	Head	Body	Legs	Takedowns	Control
R1	1 – 0	34 – 25	14 – 11	3 – 6	17 – 8	0/0 – 0/0	0:05 – 0:00
R2	2 – 0	34 – 37	19 – 22	5 – 14	10 – 1	0/0 – 0/0	0:15 – 0:30
R3	0 – 0	26 – 49	17 – 40	4 – 9	5 – 0	0/0 – 0/2	0:34 – 1:31
R4	0 – 0	46 – 36	30 – 22	11 – 14	5 – 0	0/0 – 0/1	0:11 – 1:07
R5	0 – 0	24 – 19	18 – 12	3 – 7	3 – 0	0/1 – 1/4	0:26 – 2:42
Total	3 – 0	164 – 166	98 – 107	26 – 50	40 – 9	0/1 – 1/7	1:31 – 5:50

Over 25 minutes the striking was almost dead level: Diaz landed 166 significant strikes and McGregor 164. Sherdog's post-fight numbers have those two totals the other way round; the official record and ESPN both have Diaz ahead. Diaz was busier and did more of his work up close, 77-27 in the clinch, with 252 total strikes to 197 and 5:50 of control to 1:31. McGregor was the more accurate, landing 57% of his significant strikes to Diaz's 48%, and he had the two things Diaz did not: 40 leg kicks to 9, and the fight's only three knockdowns.

The totals hide how the fight swung. McGregor won the first two rounds on knockdowns and the fourth on volume; Diaz won the third clearly and the fifth narrowly. That is exactly how the judges scored it, round for round.

The media agreed with the result. Of the 19 media scorecards collected by MMADecisions, 14 had McGregor winning, four had a draw and one had Diaz.

How we scored it

Round	MMA.SOCIAL	Why
R1	10-9 McGregor	A knockdown, 34-25 in significant strikes and 17 leg kicks.
R2	10-9 McGregor	Two knockdowns outweigh Diaz's late surge and his 37-34 edge in significant strikes.
R3	10-9 Diaz	Diaz's clearest round, 49-26 in significant strikes against a tired McGregor; close to 10-8 but without a knockdown or a moment where McGregor was nearly stopped.
R4	10-9 McGregor	46-36 in significant strikes and the cleaner work at range.
R5	10-9 Diaz	Pressure, 2:42 of control, more total strikes and the only takedown, against McGregor's narrow lead in significant strikes.
Total	48-47 McGregor

Our card matches Cleary and Mullen. The fifth round is the one we went back and forth on, because McGregor landed more of the strikes that count as significant; Diaz's pressure, his control time and his late takedown tip it for us, as they did for all three judges.

Trowbridge's 10-8 is the only real argument about this fight, and it is a fair one. Diaz out-landed McGregor almost two to one in the third round and had him backing away. We stop short of 10-8 because McGregor was never close to being finished in it. Either way, the knockdowns are what decided the fight: they gave McGregor rounds 1 and 2, and in round 2 he was out-landed.

What happened next

"The king is back," McGregor said in the cage afterwards, as ESPN reported. Diaz said the fight had gone as he expected. "I knew he would have success early," he told ESPN. "Just as I expected, he was going to slow down and I was going to speed up." Dana White told ESPN: "One minute, it looked like Conor was gassed, and he got a second wind. Diaz got dropped a couple of times, it looked like he was done, and he came back."

Both men called for a third fight that night. "All I know is that it's 1-1," McGregor told BT Sport, according to a PA Media report. "This time I want to do it at 155 pounds". White said he would rather see McGregor defend his title, as ESPN reported. The event was reported to have drawn about 1.65 million pay-per-view buys, an industry estimate rather than an official figure, and a UFC record at the time according to Sherdog and MMATorch.

McGregor's next fight was for the lightweight title. At UFC 205 on November 12, 2016, he stopped Eddie Alvarez at 3:04 of the second round and became the first fighter to hold UFC titles in two divisions at the same time. Diaz did not fight again for three years; he returned at UFC 241 on August 17, 2019 and beat Anthony Pettis by unanimous decision.

The third fight never happened. In 2026 Diaz turned down a UFC offer for it and fought Mike Perry outside the UFC instead, which The Independent and Geo Super both report, and McGregor's own return ended in a first-round loss to Max Holloway at UFC 329 in July 2026 after he injured his right knee, according to theScore and UFC.com.

The verdict

McGregor vs. Diaz 2 was not a robbery. The judges agreed on the winner of every round, the media scorecards favoured McGregor by 14 to one, and our card has him winning 48-47. Diaz landed two more significant strikes and won two rounds clearly enough that one judge's draw is a defensible score. But three knockdowns in the first two rounds are the strongest evidence in the fight, and they belonged to McGregor. The result was right.

Full fight stats: Diaz vs. McGregor 2. The rest of the night: UFC 202. More: the fighters with the most decisions, the most disputed losses and the most title fights.

Sources

Questions

Who won McGregor vs. Diaz 2?

Conor McGregor, by majority decision at UFC 202 on August 20, 2016. Derek Cleary and Jeff Mullen scored it 48-47 for McGregor and Glenn Trowbridge scored it 47-47.

What was the McGregor vs. Diaz 2 scorecard?

All three judges gave McGregor rounds 1, 2 and 4 and Diaz rounds 3 and 5. Cleary and Mullen scored every round 10-9, for 48-47 McGregor. Trowbridge scored round 3 10-8 for Diaz, which made his card 47-47.

Why was McGregor vs. Diaz 2 a majority decision?

Because one judge, Glenn Trowbridge, scored the third round 10-8 for Diaz. He agreed with the other two judges on the winner of every round, but the extra point turned his card into a 47-47 draw.

Was McGregor vs. Diaz 2 a robbery?

No. Diaz out-landed McGregor 166 to 164 in significant strikes, but McGregor scored three knockdowns, and 14 of the 19 media scorecards on MMADecisions had him winning. We scored it 48-47 for McGregor.

How many times did McGregor knock Diaz down at UFC 202?

Three times: once in the first round and twice in the second, according to the official statistics. Diaz did not knock McGregor down.

Did McGregor and Diaz fight a third time?

No. Both called for a third fight after UFC 202, but it never happened. In 2026 Diaz turned down a UFC offer for the trilogy and fought outside the UFC instead.