As UFC 246 approaches, the consensus is that Conor McGregor will have the advantage over Donald Cerrone early on in their headlining bout. But, the longer the fight goes, the more it will favor “Cowboy”. Well, recently McGregor’s longtime coach John Kavanagh weighed-in on the fight, and sees the controversial star finishing the fight late.
Kavanagh makes his prediction in new interview
Recently Kavanagh spoke with McGregor’s media company, The MacLife, and the SBG coach talked about various things. When asked how he sees the January 18th fight between McGregor and Cerrone playing out, however, Kavanagh said this (quote via MMA Fighting):
“I could see it being in the championship rounds,” Kavanagh said. “That’s the mindset I personally have – and be ready for that. Now, he could spark him in seconds. But there’s a bit of extra weight involved, so I think in the later rounds.”
So, this is kind of interesting to hear. As noted above, most people are predicting that if Conor takes the fight (and he is the favorite to do so), he’ll finish it early. The reason being that Cerrone can be a slow starter, and McGregor is at his most dangerous early on. The former champ did defeat Nate Diaz by decision in a five-round fight, but questions remain about his cardio.
Could it be that Kavanagh didn’t want to make a prediction that would strengthen the ‘McGregor needs to finish it early’ narrative? Maybe. It could also be that McGregor has been showing more staying power in sparring etc.
Kavanagh praises the fight IQ of McGregor
During the aforementioned interview, Kavanagh was also asked about McGregor’s training camp and how it’s been going. While discussing the feared striker’s preparation for UFC 246, Kavanagh said this:
“With Conor’s fighting IQ, with Conor’s understanding of the game, really, this training camp is about all of us getting out of his way,” Kavanagh told The Mac Life. “Provide him an environment where he gets different looks, different feels, and support him. Where he wants the training camp to go, with intensities, and listening to him – where he has days where he has days where he wants to push hard, and days where he wants to slow down.
“It’s not so much about us coaches sitting down to game plan and then filling Conor in. Conor knows more about fighting than the rest of us put together.”
Ya. If you’ve watched any of McGregor’s interview where he talks about training, strategy etc, it’s very clear he’s a student of the game and then some.
UFC 246 will be hosted by the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada.
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