Near-Brawl Breaks Out at Conor McGregor vs. Nate Diaz UFC Presser

The UFC held a press conference to promote the upcoming welterweight bout between Conor McGregor and Nate Diaz, and things ended up getting physical Thursday. After 30 minutes of heated back-and-forth between the two fan favorites, McGregor and Diaz came together for a staredown.

Then this happened:

Diaz put his hands out in an exaggerated boxing stance with his right hand close to McGregor. The Irishman slapped his opponent's hand away, and unsurprisingly, the fighter based out of Stockton, California, didn't take this well, going after the featherweight champ. 

This resulted in a big scrum on the stage that saw Diaz's brother Nick and his longtime training partner, Jake Shields, go after McGregor as UFC executives Dana White and Dave Sholler, flanked by a security team, looked to defuse things. 

Bleacher Report's Jeremy Botter described the scene:

"

That one took some actual police officers to sort out.

— Jeremy Botter (@jeremybotter) March 3, 2016"

While things would cool down, the UFC dodged a bullet. The Diaz brothers have been catalysts in some of the most notorious out-of-the-cage brawls in MMA history, throwing down with the likes of KJ Noons at EliteXC: Return of the King, Jason "Mayhem" Miller at Strikeforce: Nashville and Khabib Nurmagomedov at World Series of Fighting 22. 

Severe MMA's Sean Sheehan relayed some images from the presser:

"

The #UFC196 staredown as told by my pictures. pic.twitter.com/Nk5Ho6Ftxh

— Seán Sheehan (@SeanSheehanBA) March 3, 2016"

Needless to say, this adds more fuel to an already fiery UFC 196 main event. Diaz and McGregor will throw down, officially, Saturday in Las Vegas.