Conor McGregor

Conor Anthony McGregor (born 14 July 1988) is an Irish mixed martial artist who competes in the featherweight and lightweight divisions of the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC). He is the current UFC Featherweight Champion and the former Cage Warriors featherweight and lightweight champion. As of 14 December 2015, he is No. 3 in the official UFC pound-for-pound rankings and ranked as the No. 1 featherweight and No. 5 pound-for-pound fighter in the world by Sherdog. He is currently on a 15-fight win streak, 14 of which have not made it past the second round.

Early life

McGregor was born in Dublin, Ireland. He was raised in the South Dublin suburb of Crumlin and attended a Gaelscoil and Gaelcholáiste at both primary and at secondary level in Coláiste de hÍde in Tallaght where he also developed his passion for sport playing association football. In his youth, he played football for Lourdes Celtic Football Club and supported Manchester United in the English Premier League.

In 2006, McGregor moved with his family to Lucan in west Dublin, attending Gaelcholáiste Coláiste Cois Life. Following that, he commenced a plumbing apprenticeship. While in Lucan, he began sparring with future Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) fighter Tom Egan who taught McGregor how to grapple and ignited his passion for mixed martial arts. McGregor's walking weight is around 170 lbs.

Nate Diaz

Nathan Donald Diaz (born April 16, 1985), professionally known as Nate Diaz, is an American mixed martial artist currently competing for the UFC in the lightweight division and the winner of The Ultimate Fighter 5. He is the younger brother of mixed martial artist and former Strikeforce Welterweight Champion and WEC Welterweight Champion Nick Diaz. In addition to the UFC, Diaz has competed in the WEC, Strikeforce, and Pancrase in Japan. As of January 4, 2016, Diaz is #7 in official UFC lightweight rankings.

Background

Nate, the younger brother of Nick Diaz, was born and raised in Stockton, California. Like his brother, he went to Tokay High School, and at the age of 14, Nate began training with Nick. Together, they run a Brazilian jiu-jitsu school in Lodi, California and is known to train with Nicolas 'Nico Greek' Lipari.

Mixed martial arts career

The Ultimate Fighter 5

Diaz was a contestant on The Ultimate Fighter 5, which exclusively featured Lightweights, fighting on Jens Pulver's team. In the preliminary round, Diaz defeated Rob Emerson by submission; in the quarterfinals he defeated fellow Team Pulver teammate Corey Hill via triangle choke submission in the first round. In the semifinals, Diaz defeated Team Penn member Gray Maynard by submission, advancing to the finals where he faced teammate Manvel Gamburyan. After losing the first round, Diaz won by submission after Gamburyan was forced to tap out in the second round due to the dislocation of his right shoulder as the result of attempting a takedown. With the victory, Diaz became the winner of The Ultimate Fighter 5.

Ultimate Fighting Championship

The Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) is a mixed martial arts promotion company. It is the largest in the world and features most of the top-ranked fighters in the sport. Based in the United States, the UFC produces events worldwide that showcase ten weight divisions and abide by the Unified Rules of Mixed Martial Arts. The UFC has held over 300 events to date. Dana White serves as the president of the UFC while brothers Frank and Lorenzo Fertitta control the UFC's parent company, Zuffa, LLC.

The first Ultimate Fighting Championship event was held on November 12, 1993 at the McNichols Sports Arena in Denver, Colorado. The purpose of the early Ultimate Fighting Championship competitions were to identify the most effective martial art in a fight, with minimal rules, between competitors of different fighting disciplines, including boxing, Brazilian jiu-jitsu, Sambo, wrestling, Muay Thai, karate, judo, and other styles. In subsequent competitions, fighters began adopting effective techniques from more than one discipline, which indirectly helped create an entirely separate style of fighting known as present-day mixed martial arts.

Diaz

Díaz is a common Spanish surname with multiple meanings in multiple languages. First found in Castile, where the name originated in the Visigoths period, the name accounts for about 0.17 % of the Spanish population, ranking as the 14th-most frequently found surname in both 1999 and 2004 compared to the most popular Spanish surname of those years.

Variants and related names

There is minor evidence that Díez may be equivalent to Díaz, in the form of Spanish language listing of most frequent surnames in 1999 Spain (OcioTotal 1999). However, a 2008 in-press academic manuscript about Spanish naming in 2004 suggests otherwise, listing statistics for "Díaz" and "Díez" separately (Mateos & Tucker 2008).

In relation to descent from the Biblical names James and Jacob, it has been surmised that Díaz is a derivation of Diego from Iago (Smith 1986), Sant Iagus. A second source suggests Díaz as being derived from a Gothic form of the paternal genitive of Dia, as in "Dia's child", or Diag, Diago or Diego (Dixon 1857). Dias translates into Son of Jacob