Mike Tyson hailed McGregor for going ten rounds in his ring debut against unbeaten American icon Floyd Mayweather.
He said on his podcast in 2020: “This is where it’s not a spectacle
“He’s never really had a boxing match in his life, right? He went ten rounds with the greatest boxer in the land, in 100 years of boxing.
“You’re not listening to me! You don’t understand what I’m saying. He went ten rounds, scored punches on the greatest fighter in the last 20, 100 years.
“Did he do something? Did he accomplish something? People look at it and say ‘the black guy beat the white guy’, look at what he had to fight against and look what he did when he fought against it?
“Imagine a guy who’s never had a boxing match and he’s fighting me? He goes ten rounds and we’re fighting?
“We’re fighting and I’m doing my thing. We go ten rounds, that’s a bad motherf****r.
“Ten rounds with the best champ? That’s the winner there. It should have been a one-round fight before it was easy [for Mayweather]. He was fighting someone who was throwing back.
“That’s the only thing, when the guy is throwing back, you’re got to have the answers.
“When he was throwing punches, he should have panicked. He was in there with the greatest fighter in the business, he should have panicked. He kept his cool.”
Diaz, 37, has only just responded to Tyson’s comments and referenced his second-round submission victory of McGregor, 34, in 2016.
He posted: “I took him all the way out in about 8 minutes right before that what does that tell you. Finished dead.”
McGregor, who beat Diaz in their rematch, vowed to defeat Mayweather, 46, if the rivals ever rematched.
He told Tyson in a tweet: “Thank you Mike, and just know that for the inevitable rematch, with the knowledge I now hold of Floyd’s style, plus under the tutelage of my old school boxing coach, I will crack the puzzle, and I will beat Floyd.
“I promise my life on it. It is great to see you back Iron Mike.”