There’s a golden rule in the fight game; never look past a fight.
But as we are well aware, Conor McGregor doesn’t play by the rules – and he’s already dreaming of bigger things beyond the clash of his life against lightweight champion Rafael Dos Anjos.
UFC 197 will no doubt be the organisation’s biggest and most lucrative in history – particularly for McGregor who was rumoured to be after a record-breaking, multi-million pound payday for the battle.
But quotes from his coach John Kavanagh show they’re already planning to reach even dizzier heights in McGregor’s one-man mission to change the whole game.
Kavanagh, who trains The Notorious out of SBG in Dublin, believes his man could seriously become a three-weight world champ.
Kavanagh made the statement when discussing McGregor competing at lightweight. He told The42:
Conor has been cutting down to 145lbs since he was 16. He’s now 27 so it will be nice to take a break from that weight-cut. We’ve done it plenty of times before and we’ll do it again.
Funnily enough, the last weight-cut — for the Aldo fight — was probably the best one yet thanks to the help of George Lockhart, who’s on board again for this fight. He’s part of the team now. You’ve seen Conor on salads… now watch what he’s like on steak.
It just allows us to focus even more on training and less on cutting weight. I think people will be surprised too when they see him standing beside these guys and they realise that even at lightweight, Conor is a pretty big guy.
And maybe the pursuit of belts won’t stop there either. I’ve said from the beginning that welterweight may not be out of the question.
One of Conor’s main sparring partners, Gunnar Nelson, is a welterweight, so Conor is very used to that feel. I would not be at all surprised if we’re preparing to go for a third belt a year from now.
There’s already been talk of a superfight between McG and former welterweight champion Georges St Pierre . Seeing as he’s come good on every single vow he’s made, we’re not ruling it out.
