Conor McGregor’s coach: ‘I don’t think there is a fighter on the planet that has his fight IQ’

When it comes to Conor McGregor fighting, coach John Kavanagh doesn’t really care who the opponent is, as long as his fighter is focused. When McGregor’s attention is zoned in on fighting, Kavanagh believes there is no other fighter in the world that can match him.

“I don’t think the opponent matters too much. I don’t think there is a fighter on the planet that has his fight IQ, his skillset that he has. It just isn’t really that important to me who he faces if he has the mindset that he has now,” Kavanagh said in a recent interview with The MacLife.

McGregor has never shied away from the big fights, and he’s defeated most of his opponents, but he’ll need to be on point when he returns to the Octagon on Jan. 18, where he’ll face Donald “Cowboy” Cerrone in the UFC 246 main event in Las Vegas. As vast as McGregor’s skillset might be, Cerrone has a fair number of tools at his disposal as well. 

He’s also holds records for the most victories and most finishes in UFC history.

Kavanagh, however, insists that with McGregor, he and his fellow coaches are simply getting out of their fighter’s way when in comes to preparing for Cerrone.

“With Conor’s fighting IQ, with Conor’s understanding of the game, this training camp is about all of us getting out of his way. 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,” added Kavanagh.

“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.”

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(Courtesy of TheMacLife)