Coach John Kavanagh is helping UFC Lightweight Champion Conor McGregor prepare to fight Floyd Mayweather this August. The longtime coach feels that when naysayers are mocking the Irish champion, that only makes McGregor perform better.
“We’ve always done best when everybody is just mocking the idea of an unknown Dublin guy saying he’s going to take on the whole UFC roster and win the belt,” Kavanagh said on The MMA Hour. “Those challenges seem to bind us even closer than we already are. I’m really seeing that spirit lit up in the team. It’s always there, but for whatever reason, because we’re being laughed at, because we’re being mocked, it’s making us even stronger.”
McGregor has been facing a lot of criticism from both the boxing and MMA community for taking the fight against Mayweather. Even though Mayweather is considered one of the greatest boxers of all time, the longtime coach does see some openings in his skill set that McGregor can exploit.
“Obviously we’re talking about one of boxing’s all-time greatest,” Kavanagh said. “But there’s also some things that there’s openings. As [UFC president] Dana White has posted a few clips, nobody is perfect. Everybody can get it. We’re just looking to make those openings happen more often than they usually do.”
Conor McGregor versus Floyd Mayweather takes place on Saturday, August 26 from the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada. Fightful is providing live coverage of the event, with a post-show podcast to follow.
