Joe Callaghan reports from the Grand Garden Arena
What happens in Vegas is supposed to stay here. But not this. Conor McGregor's first defeat of his UFC career will live now with him forever, a loss blemishing his previously perfect record, but branding him permanently.
The Notorious one was left unceremoniously slumped on the canvass as Nate Diaz, through one good eye, saw the biggest bout of his career turn into the most glorious night of his life.
The Californian veteran submitted McGregor by rear-naked choke in the second round of the headline match-up of UFC 196, an event that will go down in history as one of the most startling combat occasions.
Miesha Tate had also used a rear-naked choke to stun one of the UFC's champions, Holly Holm losing her bantamweight title at the first attempt. Holm, unlike McGregor, had refused to tap out and instead lost consciousness. That context and immediate comparison only rubbed salt into the fallen golden boy, only smudged his aura more.
In an interview last year, McGregor had spoken how his last career defeat - all of six years ago and also by rear naked choke - had "ate him alive". It's likely that this redux will devour him more ravenously.
"You're damn right [it will]," he said. "It's a tough pill to swallow. We can run from adversity or we can face our adversity head on.
"It's a bitter pill to swallow. I took a shot and went at it. I was simply inefficient with my energy. Nat took [my shots] very well. The weight helped him take those shots. I was inefficient with my energy. I made errors. His range was a factor, my left hand was falling short. My wheel kicks missed and that did more to my energy than his.
It was a battle of energy in there and he won. This is the game. I am happy to have come out and continue and stay in this fight. It didn't pay off. This is the fight business. It's another day. I will come back."
For much of the nine minutes of the fight, it looked like it was going to be another day that mirrored his seven previous days in the UFC spotlight. McGregor landed the first punch of the fight to send the decibel levels soaring anew inside an arena that had been twice turned green by McGregor.
Red was the colour now as Diaz's jaw was stung again. As he looked to respond, McGregor goaded him, repeatedly asking his opponent "What's that?" as Diaz poked jabs. The canvass was soon crimson as McGregor opened Diaz under his right eye. The Notorious had dominated an opening round that was as wild as had been predicted.
Body shots soon started to find their mark too as the second round looked like going much like the first. How wrong that was to prove. A left-right combo knocked Diaz back as he wipes blood from his eye. Once his vision cleared however, Diaz broke through and rocked McGregor back.
After a heated build-up the two were now trading verbal blows and left and right bombs. This was now an all-out brawl And it wasn't going the McGregor's previous seven outings had largely gone. With just over a minute remaining the fight went to the ground, where Diaz had an advantage. He crucially got McGregor's back and locked in a perfect choke hold.
"I was connecting with him [in the first round] and his were whizzing past the head," said McGregor in a magnanimous post-fight press conference, where defeat rather than triumph was the alien topic. "But in the second round he popped me with a left and caught me off balance. He got my neck. [I tried to] do similar to the Chad [Mendes fight] where I rolled and came back to my knees. I simply didn't have it in me. There's many lessons to be learned but I'm happy that I will learn and grow and come back."
Where he comes back to is the most pressing question for McGregor. Having rubbed so many fellow fighters the wrong way on his ascension to the very top of the UFC, there was understandably a lot of joy taken from this fall. Rafael Dos Anjos, the lightweight champion and original opponent on this card, took to Twitter to toast Diaz's upsetting of all the odds.
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Video from UFC.
His fellow countryman Jose Aldo Jr, the 13-second KO victim on an altogether different night for McGregor here in December was also overjoyed on social media, demanding a rematch with the featherweight champion and calling McGregor a pussy.
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[/raw]See ya at #UFC200, @TheNotoriousMMA. Your fairy tale is over. You got nowhere to run now. Time to a rematch, pussy. pic.twitter.com/67fmic8qxG
— Jose Aldo Junior (@josealdojunior) March 6, 2016
"I know there's a lot of people celebrating this, celebrating another man's victory. I cannot understand that," said McGregor, who may have to get used to such gloating. "At the end of the day I'm featherweight champion and I feel that it is right to go back down there and to remind them. I think next is probably go back down and defend my featherweight crown.
"It's hard not to give Aldo another go but he pulls out a lot, he doesn't show up. At least Frankie [Edgar] gets in there. I'll keep my ear to the ground and I'll listen to what the fans want most."
He quickly rejected notions that he would take a temporary step back having dominated the spotlight for two years now.
"I'm still really enjoying it. I'm not tired of it. I still feel UFC 200 is there for me. But I will sit...I'm not cut, I'm simply heartbroken."
The heart should heal. The champion's aura, however, is unlikely to do so.
