McGregor, trainer roll with punches
When you think LAS VEGAS about Conor McGregor the sports personality, images of Lamborghinis, mink coats and verbal outbursts spring instantly to mind. Yet when you reflect upon Conor McGregor the fighter, there is likely a quiet man dressed in black in the corner of the picture.
John Kavanagh, McGregor’s trainer, has been an ever-present influence on his career, from his earliest steps into the martial arts world up to Saturday’s $100 million payday against Floyd Mayweather Jr.
McGregor and Kavanagh come across as being inseparable, so much so that the Irishman defied common wisdom by declining to hire a recognized boxing coach ahead of his showdown with Mayweather, which will be a foray from his typical
“It is a challenge, but challenges are what we are used to. I am not scared of the unknown.” John Kavanagh, Conor McGregor’s trainer, on facing Floyd Mayweather Jr. in a boxing match
sphere of mixed martial arts and a headlong dive into the sweet science.
There might be no fighter-trainer combo in combat sports that is tighter, yet with the greatest challenge of his career approaching, McGregor reflected that their relationship recently suffered a rocky patch, one that
made him appreciate its value even more.
By his own admission, McGregor began to believe his own hype following his extraordinary and dramatic 13-second knockout of Jose Aldo in the main event of UFC 194 in December 2015.
Suddenly catapulted into a role as the face of the Ultimate Fighting Championship, McGregor lost his way a little, thinking himself invincible and wallowing in the attention.
“After the Aldo fight, I just became a little above showing up for training,” McGregor said. “It came back and bit me in the ass.”
It was a wild time for the entire team.
The effects of McGregor’s newfound superstardom brought focus onto the entire group.
Kavanagh was a big name in his own right, his services more in demand than ever and a book, Win or Learn, on the shelves.
Kavanagh’s time was tight, and McGregor, with publicists, sponsors and television crews all pulling for a piece of him, was in no mood to stick to a tight schedule. The fighter would skip some of Kavanagh’s sessions and arrange his own to fit his hours.
There was no drastic rift, but going into McGregor’s attempt to win the lightweight title against Rafael dos Anjos in early 2016, things were different.
Then dos Anjos pulled out less than two weeks before the fight, to be replaced by Nate Diaz. Then Diaz withstood McGregor’s vicious strikes and tapped him out. As he contemplated his first setback since joining the UFC, McGregor realized he had made a mistake.
“There were so many things going on,” he said. “I had my things; John had his book. We became two entities among ourselves. I was doing my thing. He was doing his thing. It was almost like it wasn’t a real student-teacher relationship anymore. That was my fault. We’d mended that by the rematch.”
Heading into fight week, there seems little chance McGregor will allow things to slip again.
He could have gone a different route for fighting Mayweather, with a different type of training setup, and it might not have caused great offense. But having drifted from Kavanagh before and seen the upshot, he was not minded to do it again.
“It’s been a hell of a journey,” McGregor said. “Keep believing in your ability. Look at everyone around you and celebrate them, don’t think you’ve got to go somewhere else, (like) moving to America. That’s the sign of a weak-minded fighter. I haven’t brought anyone else from the outside in.
“My team stays my team. It’s a different discipline. But fighting is fighting. And we are masters at fighting.
“We are a different breed at fighting. We understand it clearer and more precise than anyone on planet earth, and that’s what these young fighters have to believe in their roots. That’s the secret to success. Celebrate your surroundings, and you will succeed. Don’t, and you’re going away from yourself and you’re just another guy on another guy’s team. You know what I’m saying? You’re just a tourist.”
Kavanagh is known as one of the driving forces behind MMA’s growth in Ireland. His Straight Blast Gym network has franchises all across the country. Bullied as a teenager, Kavanagh gains satisfaction from self-defense programs aimed at helping regular members of the community as much as from his fighters thriving.
As a seemingly impossible task approaches, one in which McGregor, in his boxing debut, must take on one of the best of all time in Mayweather, Kavanagh is unfazed.
“It is a challenge, but challenges are what we are used to,” Kavanagh said. “I am not scared of the unknown.”