Win or learn.
That’s the mantra from Conor McGregor’s coach, John Kavanagh and one that his fighter lives by.
McGregor felt he had all his bases covered for his March step up from featherweight to lightweight. Training camp was mainly in Dublin, the daily calorie intake increased, regular training partners were retained and Ido Portal’s influence appeared to grow.
When Rafael dos Anjos pulled out, 10 days from their UFC lightweight title bout, McGregor agreed to fight Nate Diaz and told him to “get comfortable” at 170 lbs.
Looking back, after McGregor’s second round submission loss, ‘The Notorious’ admitted he had got his diet and training routine wrong. In an interview with ESPN’s The Body Issue, he said the 155 lb diet was ‘thrown out’. He commented:
“I’d be in the gym six to eight hours on fight week – ‘I’ve got bags of energy. I can do this all day’. But it came back and bit me in the ass. My body went into shock. I over-trained and then mismanaged the weight.”
McGregor has also ditched the concept of training at Dublin’s Straight Blast Gym in the lead-up to the fight. Instead, will be based in Las Vegas before August’s UFC 202.
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The Vegas switch mirrors McGregor’s preparations for his victorious bouts against Chad Mendes and Jose Aldo last year. The thinking behind setting up camp in ‘Sin City’ is acclimatisation to the city’s dry climate and the best way to negate time difference as the fight draws nearer.
The Dubliner will also train from 1pm, rather than through the night, and training conditions will mimick that of five five-round fights. Speaking at the UFC 202 press conference, McGregor spoke about getting in new training partners. He said:
“I’ve prepared a little bit more specific. I don’t prepare for specific opponents [usually] and the reasons are pretty clear – even I face pulls out, they pull out all the time, last minute. It has been a staple of my career.
“I just carried on training. Even though I was preparing for dis Anjos in the last contest, I didn’t even bring in a south-paw [like Diaz] for the camp. This time, I’m preparing for a tall, lanky, ugly, Mexican southpaw”
As for movement expert Portal, he is still on the scene.
