Joe Schilling: Nate Diaz is a “higher-level fighter” than Conor McGregor

At UFC 196, Nate Diaz shocked the world as he defeated Conor McGregor via 2nd round submission on just 10 days notice. While the majority of MMA fans were in awe of the fact that Diaz defeated McGregor on such short notice, Diaz’s teammate, legendary kickboxer Joe Schilling, wasn’t nearly as surprised.

He spoke on The Fighter & The Kid podcast:

“We all knew, in the back of our heads that Nate should win this fight,”

“He’s just a more experienced, higher-level fighter. I think that was obvious.”

“What I was really watching and thinking about — Conor sleeps people at 145 pounds but Nate spars with Andre Ward and myself. Sparring with those guys, I hit them hard, you know? We hit each other [expletive] hard. Not a good time. Five minutes of just [expletive], and I’ve never wobbled or hurt Nate. And, I knock a lot of people out at 187 to 205. Same thing with Nick. I thought that what was going to happen was he was going to hit Nate with that same shot, Nate is not going to move and then Conor is going to be like ‘oh [expletive].'””

What do you think PENN Nation? Did you see the upset coming?