Not only is Conor McGregor one of the very best fighters in the UFC, but he has an outstanding team behind him.
John Kavanagh's mantra, as well as the title of his book, is 'Win or Learn', and speaking in the aftermath of Conor McGregor's UFC lightweight title win at UFC 205, the SBG head coach once again expressed the importance of that loss to Nate Diaz at UFC 196.
Stopping short of suggesting that the Eddie Alvarez win would not have happened without that loss, Kavanagh was willing to admit that the adversity that was overcome has added a new dimension to McGregor's arsenal, but in terms of how the Alvarez fight actually went, it clearly happened exactly as expected for McGregor's team.
Speaking to ESPN moments after Conor hoisted his two UFC belts above his head for the first time, John Kavanagh was clearly thrilled with how they had prepared for the fight.
Really, almost step-by-step it went how I thought it would.
I did think round one would be a little bit more on the fence, I thought Eddie would pressure the wrestling more but he got stung early and I think he got nervous about trying to close the distance.
But other than that, leaning in on his back hand.. And then when we got to the fence people thought he would have his way with Conor, but the positions he went through there were step-by-step what we had been doing in the gym for years now, but people are only getting to see it.
To further support Kavanagh's claim that it went almost perfectly to plan can be seen in a tweet he sent to Paul Kimmage before last night's main event.
And it was a small cup #jaysus pic.twitter.com/STMkJ3uccK
— Coach Kavanagh (@John_Kavanagh) November 12, 2016
@John_Kavanagh Did you leave a tip?
— Paul Kimmage (@PaulKimmage) November 12, 2016
@PaulKimmage yes. I told them McGregor by KO in the 2nd.
— Coach Kavanagh (@John_Kavanagh) November 12, 2016
He predicts these things.
If you can predict what your opponent is going to do, and how they are going to approach the fight, and then actually be correct... Yeah, you've got a pretty good chance of winning the fight.
There's a reason that Conor McGregor has been with his team from day one.
