UFC 202: Conor McGregor confident he'll toy with Nate Diaz in rematch

In any sport -- specifically combat -- how you finish is more important than how you start.

Conor McGregor learned that the hard way at UFC 196, as he was on cruise control against Nate Diaz throughout the fight before he got blasted with a few strikes and eventually tapped to an air-tight guillotine in the closing moments of round two.

Video highlights here.

Lesson learned, says Conor, who recently declared during a media stop to promote his head trainer's book (via Flo Combat) that when the two men run it back at UFC 202 on Aug. 20, 2016 in Las Vegas, Nevada (details), he is confident he can toy with Diaz before taking him out.

"I'm feeling very confident in myself and I'm going to toy with this man. For seven or eight minutes of the last fight, I was going to win but that fade away left hand he caught me with - my senses were still there and it was almost like a fatigue thing. My balance wasn't gone and always look back now and I question what would have just happened if I weathered the storm? He was one or two shots from being done I feel. When that left hand hit he got this burst of energy, you could see it in his corner they went insane, they acted like they just won the lotto. I took a couple more shots, I shot and then ended up in a guillotine and it was just all own hill from there. I wonder what would've happened if I just kept circling and took the smacks and survived? Eventually, all the energy he got gained from that left-hand shot would've dipped again and then round three would've began. I think there's a lot of stuff I can improve upon next time and I'm going in there confident I will get this rematch back."

And he won't be eating cheesecake, either.

A second loss to Diaz would be disastrous for "Notorious," who still lays claims to the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) Featherweight title, Anyone expect a different outcome when the two men tango for a second time?