Talk about Conor McGregor it is to make it the greatest sporting phenomenon known in recent times within the combat disciplines. Never had a humble plumber gone, in just a decade, from living on state aid to occupying the first position on the Forbes list of the highest-paid athletes on the planet, ahead of Cristiano Ronaldo and Messi. This has been possible thanks to his expertise inside the UFC octagon and his character woven to the millimeter outside of it. But his progression could not be understood without the figure of his main coach, John Kavanagh (Dublin, 1977), who ‘adopted’ him in 2008 and made him metamorphose from a simple puncher to a fighter
more complete, capable of raising two belts simultaneously in two divisions. She knows him better than anyone. And he does not rule out that he ends up facing Islam Makhachev, the pupil of Khabib Nurmagomedov, his archenemy in these mixed martial arts courses.
Let’s get to the point. When will Conor McGregor fight again?
We are aiming for summer. So hopefully in the summer.
He arrives with two defeats against Dustin Poirier and in the last one, last summer, he suffered a fracture in his leg. Will he come back directly to fight for the UFC title?
That’s the big question. I don’t know, but he will get the fight he wants, so we’ll see.
We have seen images of McGregor with a very muscular body, he has gained a lot of volume. Do you think he will be able to drop back down to lightweight (70 kilos) to compete in mixed martial arts (MMA)?
Oh yeah. I know that he is quite big at the moment, but he has been doing MMA for 15 years and has never stopped giving the agreed weight. There was a time when he couldn’t do much technique or running, obviously because of his leg injury, and he has put on weight. He now looks very strong and big, but when he starts training MMA, he will start to burn a lot more calories, he will go down on the scale and get to light weight.
At this point, the biggest unknown is who McGregor will fight again. Do you think the fight against Islam Makhachev (ranked No. 3 in the division and an outstanding student of Khabib Nurmagomedov) will ever take place?
I don’t know, I guess if they both want to be champions… The thing about our sport is that there can only be one champion. We’ll see what happens.
The support that McGregor has from an entire country like Ireland is impressive. They even travel to the United States and fill the venues to see him compete. How do you assess the impact it has had on the development of MMA in Ireland?
I think it happens in all sports when someone is very inspiring or makes a lot of noise. I remember reading that there was a South Korean girl who did very well in golf and ten years later there were 50 girls doing great in that country. Conor McGregor has done the same thing to mixed martial arts in Ireland. Ten years ago, when Conor started making a lot of noise, a lot of 10 or 11 year olds became fans and joined my gym or others from their neighborhoods. When those guys hit their 20s, they were doing really well. It’s great to have someone who is a big figure in the media and in sports to inspire those who come after. If Conor could, they can. He had no one to look at, he was the first and that is very difficult, you have to believe in yourself a lot. If a young Irishman could do it, they now think they can too.
I understand that McGregor helps the new generations financially so that they can forge their careers. This is so?
Yeah, he’s been unofficially helping Irish wrestlers for a couple of years now. He has paid entire teams to go out and compete, he has paid for their equipment and he is still a member of my gym. There are many fighters there and he takes care of them.
How do you see those young athletes coming up behind in Ireland? Will we have a new McGregor?
I see the youngest guys on the team who have been doing MMA for over ten years. Not so long ago they competed with training in only one art, like Brazilian jiujitsu or wrestling, but now they mix all the martial arts from a very young age, they learn everything at once, they are total MMA fighters. I think this new wave of fighters is representing the sport at a very high level, being very early in their learning.
In addition to McGregor’s teacher, you are the president of the MMA Association of Ireland and part of the technical team. In fact, they are competing these days in the World Super Cup. How are you coping with participation and what do you think about Ukraine and Russia being excluded?
It is a very professional event and the level is very high, but we are ready to compete. I feel sorry for the guys from Russia and Ukraine, they only want to compete and are not involved in the decisions that are made at the state level. It is very sad because I hate to see athletes punished for government decisions.
Spain is not present in the Super Cup, but our evolution has been seen in recent years. How do you see us?
You are a good team. MMA is quite new in Spain and yet you still have several guys competing at a high level. I know that the Spanish like combat sports and I am sure that in the future they will continue to grow. You will play a better role every time at the international level.
