John Kavanagh seems like the type to follow his own code whenever he can.
The SBG coach, who counts Conor McGregor among his charges, has a set routine for fight weeks, and the same goes for the earliest part of his preparations.
He usually refuses to put fight offers before any of his fighters until they come to him, but he has admitted he was prepared to put that to one side when he got the call about Conor McGregor’s upcoming UFC 205 bout.
McGregor’s title fight against Eddie Alvarez will headline the first ever New York card for the promotion, and Kavanagh told MMA Hour host Ariel Helwani that the chance to make history made it a no-brainer.
“I’ll be honest, it’s kind of a rule I have,” Kavanagh said.
“I never approach somebody I think is ready to fight and say ‘hey, do you want to fight, there’s a show coming up’ – that’s actually a piece of advice I got from my coach”
“I always let them come to me – like, a beginning fighter – I think if a coach goes to a fighter they can say yes for the wrong reasons, maybe to please you, then as the event draws closer things fall apart. I’ve seen that in many gyms.
“However with this one I was probably a little pushing for this contest because, like you said, history. As an event, I just saw this as much bigger than just another fight.”
While he was reluctant to go as far as saying McGregor might have turned down the fight without his encouragement, Kavanagh admitted he had his doubts as to whether The Notorious would have accepted the bout with Alvarez if it was in Las Vegas rather than New York.
“I do feel this is the icing on the cake that made it very tempting, because there’s only one first.”
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