ABU DHABI – Conor McGregor’s head coach John Kavanagh is excited to see the Irishman using four-ounce gloves once again.
Kavanagh thinks McGregor’s punching power, ahead of his return at UFC 257 this Saturday, has dramatically increased in training camp, which has been spent using 18-ounce boxing gloves – and holding back on his sparring partners. Kavanagh is excited to see the UFC star’s power on display now that’s it’s hit new levels.
“That power has increased, as it has for Dustin moving up a weight class. But for Conor, it’s really at an extraordinary level,” Kavanagh told reporters on Thursday. “To be honest, I’m really excited to see when I’m not shouting at him, ‘Take it easy, take it easy,’ and he’s wearing 18-ounce gloves and people are still flying across the ring. So to see it with four-ounce gloves, and me without having to worry about the sparring partner, it’s exciting.”
A former UFC lightweight and featherweight champion, McGregor (22-4 MMA, 10-2 UFC) takes on Dustin Poirier (26-6 MMA, 18-5 UFC) in a rematch in the main event of the card. McGregor stopped Poirier with strikes in the first round of their 2014 outing.
Kavanagh believes a lot of McGregor’s improvement ahead of UFC 257 is linked to his focus and not giving in on outside distractions that may have hindered his training in the past.
“Being focused throughout the camp and not letting distractions get in the way (is what) we’ve done to a different level for this fight,” Kavanagh said. “The ‘Cowboy’ fight was certainly a new level of commitment, love, and enjoyment for the process and that’s being dwarfed by this one because the ‘Cowboy’ one was a couple of months (of preparation). This fight has been a year because nothing stopped after January. The world stopped, but Conor didn’t, we didn’t. Certainly, the intensity dropped for a little while, but it’s been ramping up since the summer.
“… If you told me that’s what’s going to happen after the Khbaib fight, I probably wouldn’t have believed you because he wasn’t able to do that at the time — too many things getting in the way and too many distractions. So to be able to return to that now, I don’t think I would’ve believed that after that loss, yet here we are.”
UFC 257 takes place Saturday at Etihad Stadium in Abu Dhabi. The main card airs on pay-per-view following prelims on ESPN and early prelims on ESPN+.
Coach: Conor McGregor’s punching power at an ‘extraordinary level’ before UFC 257