Remember the left hand that knocked out Jose Aldo, Chad Mendes and Dustin Poirier?
Well that strike has been honed by ‘Rowdy’ Owen Roddy, a former MMA fighter turned elite striking coach.
Roddy, who has been a part of Conor McGregor’s training regime from day one, might not get the plaudits that head coach John Kavanagh does but the Irishman has played a vital role in the career of The Notorious.
TBT some of the Dream team after UFC Boston. @TheNotoriousMMA @prospectkiller @TeamEganMMA #andthenew #ufc189 pic.twitter.com/TjCB56d31I
— Owen Roddy (@coachowenroddy) May 26, 2015
Roddy knew McGregor before the flashy kicks and devastating boxing, and has revealed his first impression of McGregor and his training partner Tom Egan, the first Irishman to fight in the UFC.
“I met Conor McGregor and Tom Egan at the same time,” Roddy said on TheMMAHour.
“I met the two guys in a small gym, one of John’s [Kavanagh] first gyms in Harold’s Cross and the two of them were very new to it. Conor knew nothing. He was a good striker and Tom had a bit of kickboxing, did a little bit of Jiu-Jitsu but not much, the two of them.
“I was getting ready for a fight and stuff and they couldn’t believe that I actually fought. They were like ‘you actually compete? You actually get into a cage – or a ring, because there was no cages back then – and you fight?’
Putting the work in with "The King @TheNotoriousMMA". pic.twitter.com/R8f1MV7p7u
— Owen Roddy (@coachowenroddy) May 8, 2015
“And they were kind of shocked so we were moving around and I was moving around with Tom and I was moving around with Conor.
“I remember moving around lightly and Conor hit me and I thought ‘Shit! Jesus, this kid hits hard.’
“So I took him down and submitted him and that was it. But I remember him getting up off the ground and not being fazed at all by it. You could almost see it in his eyes that he was like ‘I could have knocked you out easily. That shot would have knocked you out if I wanted it to.
“And that was from day one, Conor having that 100% belief in himself, and that was the one thing that stuck with me for all of Conor’s career. I remember seeing that in him from day one, the first session with no Jiu-Jitsu and no wrestling but still like ‘ah I would have knocked you out. I would have beaten you.'”
