According to Paulie Malignaggi, Conor McGregor's decision not to hire a boxing coach to prepare him for this weekend's fight against Floyd Mayweather came down to insecurity. McGregor's former sparring partner believes the Irishman is incapable of taking criticism.
However, according to Packie Collins, the man who would have been McGregor's boxing coach, the main factor in the decision was time.
Speaking on Newstalk's Off The Ball on Wednesday evening, Collins - who runs the Celtic Warrior Gym in Blanchardstown - said that John Kavanagh had broached the subject of him being McGregor's coach for the fight. McGregor had previously spent time working with Collins, most recently for the rematch against Nate Diaz last year.
I read an article that John did in New York. He was asked who will train Conor McGregor as a boxing coach and he said I [Collins] will. So I thought, 'This is great. Let's hope this fight happens'.
It got closer and then John texted me going, 'Right, this is going to happen'. This was before it was even out there. He asked about setting up the gym in the long mile road, the boxing end of it. He'd like to bring in a referee, this was John's idea to overlook the rules as far as Conor was concerned. We did all this and he spoke to me about size of gloves, I gave him my insight into that.
When the fight was finally confirmed, both Kavanagh and Collins agreed that eight weeks would be insufficient time for a boxing coach to work with McGregor.
He went off and came back then we met again. He said, 'Listen. We've spoken about it and the fight has come up a lot sooner than we thought. Would there be any point in trying to teach Conor boxing in eight weeks?' I knew by saying no, that was it, I wasn't going to Vegas, I wasn't going to be part of this. But I had to be honest, I had to agree with John. I said, 'You're dead right. There's no point'.
Collins said he had seen plenty of improvement in McGregor's boxing skills over the years, describing him as 'quite good'. He believes McGregor's best chance is to fight in the style he has seen him use at his gym in the past.
If he tries to box like a boxer, he's got zero chance against the best boxer of this era. But if he goes out and fights like he normally does when he comes to my gym - he uses certain moves that are all within the rules and it's awkward and it would take time to figure it out - so if he goes out and fights the way he normally fights, I think he's got a better chance.
It was this move he was using one time. It was like a jab, I think they call it 'the hammer'. He was using it against my nephew and none of us could figure it out. It's a like punch where you chop down from above, it lands like a fist.
