John Kavanagh is the longtime coach of UFC Lightweight Champion Conor McGregor, who makes his professional boxing debut in just a few days.
The longtime coach of McGregor has now revealed how he learned about the upcoming super fight between McGregor and Floyd Mayweather.
“He just said, ‘The man has made a grave error. This is going to be Bruce Lee sh*t. This is water becoming the cup,’” Kavanagh said on The MMA Hour. “First of all, I read that and I went, oh, the Mayweather fight is actually on. I didn’t quite believe it until then, so that blew me away, and my brain starts racing, ‘okay, I’ve got to put certain wheels into motion.’ But I don’t think it was until a couple of weeks later, or maybe days later, that I kinda read again and I realized what he was saying about the Bruce Lee water quote — that the ruleset might change and the strategy will change, but the fundamentals remain the same. This is something my own coach has told me a long, long time ago — Matt Thornton — that if you take an MMA fighter and you put him in a kickboxing match or a wrestling match, or a self-defense situation, the rules of engagement certainly change and that will affect your strategy, but the fundamentals of timing, of distance, of range, of how to hit hard, different striking techniques, they will remain the same.”
Kavanagh has been leading the training camp for the super fight, which has seen its fair share of drama after the Paulie Malignaggi drama.
In the end, the longtime coach is just happy to be a part of the madness of the bout.
“We’re going to have fun with this. This is sport, it’s a great event, it’s going to be one of the most-watched events of all-time maybe, everybody has an opinion on it, and I’m very honored to be playing a part in it,” says Kavanagh.
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.
