Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
KO Kavanagh: Conor came up short but we’ll live & learn OK
JOHN KAVANAGH has claimed that Conor Mcgregor has no intention of retiring despite suffering his first stoppage defeat against Dustin Poirier.
The ‘Notorious’ was knocked out in the second round at
UFC 257 on Sunday morning in his first fight for 12 months.
It was the Dubliner’s second defeat in three bouts and his third in the
UFC.
But his head coach insists he will learn from the loss and make the necessary changes. Speaking on Instagram, Kavanagh said: “We had a big fight and unfortunately
we came up short but here’s the secret; you will live with it, we are all disappointed but we’re OK.
“In Conor’s case the last six months have been amazing. The discipline and effort he put in... when you’ve done that, when you’ve left no stone unturned, you’ve made every training session, you’ve made weight the right way, you’ve made the walk, competed as hard as you could... “Competition has two sides to the coin, winning and losing, and sometimes it’s going to fall on the losing side. “That’s something you have to get used to; the quicker you get used to losing, the quicker you are going to have success.”
Kavanagh (inset, above) was addressing followers of the Wimp2warrior programme which trains beginners for an amateur MMA fight.
And he added: “We’ve woken up this morning, we’re back on the yacht in Dubai and guess what, the sun rose and we all still love Conor.
“We are going to pick ourselves up and figure out some of the technical issues that went against us on the night, get back up on the horse and go again.”
Mcgregor has insisted he will return to the cage and would consider a rematch with Poirier as well as a trilogy bout with Nate Diaz.
But Diaz insists he only wants to fight Poirier, having not competed since November 2019.
The lightweight division is currently being held up by Khabib Nurmagomedov who retains his title but insists he does not want to return.