In recent months, there’s been plenty of debate about whether Conor McGregor is in fact, motivated to climb the MMA mountain once again. But, as McGregor prepares to battle Donald Cerrone next month, one of his coaches is reporting the former champ’s putting in the work and then some.
Owen Roddy comments on McGregor’s camp so far
After weeks of speculation about when and who McGregor will fight next, recently it was confirmed he’ll take on Cerrone at UFC 246, January 18th. The announcement came a little while after McGregor reported on a promotional tour that his comeback would begin on that date.
Well, more recently, McGregor’s longtime striking coach, Owen Roddy, appeared on The Eurobash podcast. While discussing how the controversial star’s camp has been going so far, Roddy said this (quote via MMA Fighting):
“The last camp was just a bit sporadic,” said Roddy, while referring to McGregor’s training camp for his bout with Khabib Nurmagomedov last October, which he lost via submission. “We didn’t know what time we were training at. Sometimes it was very late at night, sometimes it was early in the morning and nobody really knew…For the past couple of months it’s been very regimented.”
“We’re training at 11 and 7 every day. We’re doing strength and conditioning, whether it’s in the morning or evening, and then doing a technical session and it’s perfect. And you can see that’s reaping the benefits and rewards already from that. As I said, he’s been working on his strength and conditioning for a while before he even came into this camp, so now we’re not spending half the camp trying to get in shape or anything like that. Now, he’s in tip-top shape and now we’re just focusing on the game plan – coming up with a good game plan and going in and executing it.”
Roddy reports McGregor’s hungry again
And in terms of McGregor’s mindset and motivation as he gets set for his return? While talking about that, Roddy said this:
“I think it’s great seeing Conor back enjoying what he’s doing, that’s the more important thing for me, for everybody and for Conor. You can see it in him – he’s enjoying it. I don’t know, he’s had a crazy couple of years man…I don’t know how he copes…nobody knows how he deals with what he deals with because there is so much…I think when you start to see some footage of him training, he starts to do his interviews and he starts building the fight, you’re going to see the old Conor back…I can see that already. When people see that, they’re going to say, ‘That’s the Conor we fell in love with.’ He has that hunger again. A hungry, dedicated and motivated Conor McGregor is a scary dude.”
There you have it. Now, yes, none of this means necessarily that McGregor’s going to be successful in his comeback run. But, there are certainly plenty of indications that McGregor is focused on re-establishing himself as one of the sport’s greats.
UFC 246 will be hosted by the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada.
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