UFC: Conor McGregor’s head coach John Kavanagh warns of ‘improved’ version of ‘Eddie Alvarez and Jose Aldo’ fight days
- Long-time coach John Kavanagh surprised at Conor McGregor’s brilliant performance upon UFC comeback
- Kavanagh says first-round knockout ‘wasn’t really planned’ and calls McGregor ‘terrifying and fantastic at the same time’
Conor McGregor’s coach John Kavanagh had told everyone leading up to his scintillating UFC 246 comeback against Donald Cerrone that this would be the “best version” of McGregor fans would see to date.
But the 31-year-old Irishman’s (professional MMA record 22-4) blitz of Cerrone even exceeded Kavanagh’s high expectations.
“I did say repeatedly that I thought this would be the best Conor McGregor of all time, but I didn’t know that it was going to be this good a version. He really seems to have reached a different level of athleticism now than he’s ever had in his career,” Kavanagh said on Ariel Helwani’s MMA Show.
“He always had an incredibly high IQ and that seems to be married with an Olympic level of athleticism. It’s somewhat terrifying and fantastic at the same time.”
McGregor did not waste any time from the moment the fight began, swinging hard with his left and sprawling on Cerrone’s subsequent duck and takedown attempt.
“I asked him afterwards about it and it wasn’t really planned,” Kavanagh said. “He just saw [Cerrone] and wanted that first contact. A little bit overexcited and fantastic reactions from Donald to slip under that, and even more fantastic reactions [from McGregor].