Sean Sheehan 
This morning it was reported by Anna Hissa and confirmed by MMAFighting that UFC lightweight champion Rafael dos Anjos had withdrawn from his scheduled superfight with featherweight champion Conor McGregor due to a foot injury.
After a long day of speculation online Fox Sports’ Damon Martin announced that Nate Diaz will step up to fight McGregor at UFC 196 on just twelve days notice.
The bout will be the main event of UFC 196 and will take place at welterweight over 5 rounds.
— Ariel Helwani (@arielhelwani) February 24, 2016
Diaz, who beat Michael Johnson in a lightweight bout late last year, has been a long time verbal adversary of McGregor and has spoken about his wish to fight him in the past.
Now, thanks to the broken foot of Dos Anjos, that wish is coming true.
Earlier today Dana White spoke to Kevin Iole of Yahoo Sports after news of dos Anjos pulling from the bout:
“When we told Conor, he said, ‘Come on! This fucking guy! Oh my God! He’s pulling out?’ “
“But when we went through the options, he said he’d fight any of them.
“I swear to God, he said, ‘I’ll fight anyone.’ He just doesn’t give a [expletive]. People talk about this strained relationship between us and Conor, and he has a different style than I’ve ever seen, but I have never seen anyone like Conor. The closest was Chuck Liddell, but we’ve never had one like Conor. You think he’s not hurt? But when he says he’s going to fight, he’s going to fight no matter what.”
“What are we going to do, Khabib hasn’t fought in two years and we’re going to bring him in to save the show? Besides, Khabib has a fight and we gave that to Fox. It’s amazing, to be honest with you. All of these managers are out there jockeying and they say they want to fight Conor. You hear these guys screaming, ‘Conor, Conor, Conor,’ but then when it comes time to take a fight, they turn it down and they’re hurt.”
