The coach has spoken.
John Kavanagh was a guest on the MMA hour with Ariel Helwani and there was only one thing to ask the SBG maestro.
Conor McGregor’s coach witnessed his prize fighter lose in spectacular style to Nate Diaz last Saturday night in Las Vegas, to hand the Dubliner his first loss since the defeat to Joseph Duffy.
Kavanagh was asked where he thought McGregor failed to do damage when he was on top in the first round, and the answer was as insightful as you would expect.
“He was loading up a bit on his left hand. If you are facing the same stance fighter, Nate was good at the shoulder roll that boxers use. A lot of the big lefts, he wasn’t catching them flush, they were bouncing off the shoulder and they weren’t having the impact it would have on an opposite stance fighter or someone not as highly skilled as Nate.”
Kavanagh was then asked about what he said to McGregor at the break before the decisive second round. The SBG man urged McGregor to take his time and mix-up his shots at the 30-year-old. Helwani put it to Kavanagh that the Dubliner was looking for a knock-out punch instead of wearing his opponent down.
“Yeah, I did feel that a little bit. I told him ‘You don’t have to take him out in one shot, no need to load up on that big hand, we don’t want to just rely on that. ‘
Kavanagh agreed with McGregor’s own assessment that he had run out of energy in the second round, and admitted that a more cautious approach may have been better.
“He was inefficient with his shots, and Nate was efficient.”
“He kind of blew himself a little bit trying to take his head off with every left hand instead rather than just landing, and maybe he should have followed his own phrase and ‘kept it flowy’.”
