John Kavanagh on Conor McGregor’s Upcoming Chandler Bout & Presidential Campaign

Speaking to Lucky Block, John Kavanagh opened up on Team McGregor’s preparation ahead of a blockbuster clash with Michael Chandler and Conor’s potential run for the presidency of Ireland…

Kavanagh, McGregor’s longtime coach, speaks about the encouraging vibes from training camp as the team locks in on the Chandler fight which could come as early as December.

The Dubliner, who has trained ‘Notorious’ from the beginning of his career in MMA, also voiced his support for McGregor’s intended run at the Irish presidency.

See the full interview below:

Q: Would Conor make a good president (of Ireland)?

John Kavanagh: “I don’t know all the roles that they’re supposed to do but what I would like about him being involved would be for some of the simple budgeting stuff. He’s got a sharp business mind and I think in politics, there’s a lot of people in politics that study diplomacy and history, and there are a lot of legal minds in politics, but not a lot of business minds.

“There was a big scandal over here recently where we had the world’s most expensive bike shed built. Over 300,000 euros spent on a bike shed, and it’d be stuff like that. I know if you approach Conor today, ‘could we have a few quid there? We’re going to build a bike shed around the corner.’ ‘Okay, yeah, how much is it? 300 grand.’ You’d be fired on the spot, any businessman would be fired on the spot but I think a lot of these politicians, they kind of come through a different world. They’ve always worked in public life, they never had to balance a budget for themselves, they’d never run a business themselves and they see 300 grand for a bike shed and they go, ‘oh, maybe that’s the price. Maybe that’s a good deal.’ I just think for some of the practical side of things, to have someone in there, almost like an Elon Musk, just cutting silly costs.

“The government seems to get bigger every year. I’m on a bit of a rant here about politics. They’re just incredibly wasteful of your money and my money and all taxpayers money, and I’d love to have someone in there like Conor that could slash a lot of those silly outgoings and then we let the other guys take care of all the diplomas and stuff.”

Q: Do you think Conor’s political ambitions will get in the way of his UFC career?

JK: “One thing I will say about him, he’s incredibly effective and always has been at compartmentalisation. The reality is, with the physical side of training for MMA, you might be talking about three hours or four hours a day. You’re not 10 hours in the gym and then you’ve no time for anything else. It’s very intense for the one, one and a half hours and then we do that twice a day.

“That session is very intense but then outside of that, look at all he’s achieved outside of his fighting while running the boat at the same time. If anybody could do it, it would be him.”

Q: Conor’s got 2 more fights on his UFC contract, if he commits to a presidential campaign, is that near enough the finish of his UFC career?

JK: “My personal view is that, Conor’s done a boxing event in the past – I’m selfish, I’m an MMA coach, I love MMA – I hope he stays with MMA but now he’s part owner of a large Bare Knuckle Fighting Championship as well. He’s got a lot of plates spinning in the air, but if I have any influence, he’ll be doing MMA.”

Q: What do you make of Andrew Tate saying he’ll return to Ireland to vote for a McGregor presidency? Have they had any interaction?

JK: “I don’t believe so. I’ve never spoken to Conor about Andrew. I don’t even know much about Andrew Tate to be honest. I know he’s heavily influential. I’ve not really seen any of his stuff. I know he’s certainly controversial, but I just don’t follow him. A couple of my fighters seem to be interested in him. Personally, I’m not too interested in him.”

Q: Do you think UFC fan Donald Trump could give Conor advice on a successful presidential run?

JK: “I suppose that what they’d have in common is that he came from the business world and went into the political world. I know a few guys who have done similar on a much, much, much smaller scale and they all came back and said the same thing – they just couldn’t believe how much of a snake pit it was and how guarded you must be. And the amount of people trying to put daggers in your back.

“I liked a show called ‘House of Cards’ back in the day. This kind of double play that goes on and the trickery and all of that, maybe, Mr. Trump, who has been through that, could kind of tell him just, ‘watch your back.’”

Q: There have been some whispers recently suggesting Conor is in line for a return at UFC 310 against Michael Chandler in December. Would December be too soon?

JK: “No, definitely not. If the date came back and was confirmed for September, we’re already in heavy training, although we’re training remotely together at the moment, he’s stateside on I believe a Forged Irish Stout tour. He’s visiting a couple of breweries over there and partners, et cetera but we’re still sending each other training videos, training plans.

“He’s got some training partners over there and the footage I’m getting back, he shared some of it recently, he’s looking very sharp to me. If the date was in December, it would be a green light for me anyway.”

Q: If you had to choose any fight for Conor to train for and compete in again, what would it be and why?

JK: “I suppose against [Nate] Diaz, we had the win and a loss, there was always kind of flirting with the idea of a trilogy and it never quite came to be. I actually thought that maybe the Chandler fight would happen and then the Diaz trilogy would be completed, but I don’t think Nate is in the UFC anymore so I’m not sure how plausible that is, but if we’re just hypothetical and we’re talking about wishlist, it’d be to do that one a third time. Nate is a great fighter. I think the two of them just match up really well and it’s 1-1 so you kind of need to do the decider.”

Q: What’s Conor’s best weight he fights at?

JK: “The 170 weight class seems to suit him now. We look back at those terrible weigh-in pictures when he was 145 lbs. That just wasn’t healthy. I still look back and think, how the hell did he do that? But he did it. The amount of discipline and effort that it took to get down to that weight class. 155 lbs at the age he was at back then, he had some fantastic wins there, obviously became the two weight, two weight champ there. And now at 170, he’s looking incredibly solid. He’s very comfortable at that weight class. There’s not much weight cutting involved. I really like him at 170 at the moment.”

Q: How do you feel when you hear other fighters criticising Conor?

JK: “Everybody has an opinion. I think it was Muhammad Ali that said ‘you might be saying something positive about me, you might be saying something negative, but as long as you’re talking about me I don’t care.’ I don’t think you take these things personally, you don’t take it too seriously. Over the years, the amount of fighters who will behind the cameras, pull me aside and say, we all need to take a moment and thank Conor for what he did for our sport. I challenge anybody to go anywhere in the world almost, and if you have a McGregor t-shirt on, somebody’s going to stop you and say ‘Oh, that’s that Irish guy!’

“You could name any star now in the UFC and there’d be plenty of places they could go where they wouldn’t even be recognised, so it’s been very kind of fighters and many of them who have done it to stop for a moment and recognise that he did bring the game up to a new level. He did affect everybody’s earning potential and he brought in a whole new bunch of fans. I think overall it’d be very difficult for any fighter out there to not argue he was a net positive.”

Q: In terms of your coaching styles and psychology of coaching, how much of that did you have to impart into Conor?

JK: “He certainly had a highly competitive nature. I think what made Conor and myself click early on was that we both had a very curious nature about the nature of fighting in general. We’d send each other videos of gorillas grappling and be blown away at the grips they use and how they move, so we’re very fascinated by combat in general. And I think that’s what made our bond strong early on and has kept it all these years is that we both have. You get some guys that come in, and a soldier mentality is the wrong way to say it but, you know, do this 10 times to do it 10 times, put your hand here to put the hand there.

“Conor, from the beginning, it was like, well, why, why put my hand there? Why did I put my hand there? And I actually really enjoy when you get a fighter engaging his brain like that and pushing back and questioning and trying out different things, almost like I treat the gym. I say, it’s like a laboratory and we’re scientists and we’re running experiments to find out the best way of leaving somebody unconscious. You look back at our journey. We were a small gym in Dublin and we were trying to go up against these mega gyms from America and all over the world. In the States they have a culture of wrestling. We don’t have that in Ireland, so we kind of had to fast forward a few decades of technical learning and this system seemed to have worked pretty well.”

Q: Do you think we will see Ian Garry and Conor McGregor co-headlining an event in the UK or Ireland one day?

JK: “I don’t know about it being in Europe. I think the UFC will want to keep Conor for their big cards. Whether it’s Madison Square Garden or whether it’s the big T-Mobile Arena or maybe even bigger than that, maybe some huge stadium event so I find it hard to believe he’d ever have them fight in Ireland again. Now for me, I’d love it. I could just drive to the event and drive home that day, which would be great.

“But Ian Garry, he’s been on an incredible run, my God. People can say what they want about him, but he keeps winning. He keeps showing up and he keeps winning. He’s got a really, really tough contest coming up now and if he gets through that then he can’t be far off a title fight at this stage, so to have a somewhat like his big brother type persona headlining a card, and then maybe even fighting for a belt as co-main events wouldn’t that be a story?”

Q: One of the most infamous moments in UFC history happened when Khabib jumped the octagon at 229 and launched at you and Danis. What were your thoughts when you saw Khabib flying towards you? 

JK: “It was a little bit surreal. You’re kind of watching it happen while thinking, is this happening? I’d never experienced anything like that. It kind of felt like it was a long time, but it was only a few seconds in reality. And then it was sort of, it was sort of taken care of and broken up. At the time, I just kind of remember going like, is this real life? Am I awake here? Is this just some crazy dream I’m having? It was a weird experience.

“I don’t spend a whole time looking back at, at wins or losses or incidents. Especially now with two kids there’s not a massive amount of time for reminiscing. So you asking me that question there, that’s the first time I’ve thought about that incident in years, if I’m being 100 percent honest.”

Q: Sean O’Malley is scheduled to make his second title defence against Merab Dvalishvili at UFC 306 next weekend. How do you see that fight playing out?

JK: “I’m really, I’m really looking forward to that. In MMA today it’s usually two guys that are quite well skilled everywhere. And this one I feel is a bit of a throwback to when you’ve somebody very skilled in striking versus somebody very skilled in grappling, so the classic striker versus grappler. If Merab is unable to close that distance, he’s going to be in a lot of trouble. If Merab can close that distance and start chaining his takedowns together, he’s got the most incredible gas tank. He just goes and goes and goes. If he’s able to get attached, Sean’s in a lot of trouble. So it’s a very interesting fight for me as a fan and as a coach.

“If you were to put a gun to my head for a prediction, I do think Sean will catch him. He’s such a sharp shooter. He’s got fantastic striking and I could see him landing some of those big stray shots. He has a win over Merab’s teammate Aljamain Sterling so I’m sure the Aljamain is helping out Merab a lot in the preparation for this but Sean is on a real run at the moment and I could just see him getting that finish.”

Q: Sean recently said he feels a lot of jealousy from Conor and says he hopes he doesn’t end up bitter like him. What do you think Conor would say to those allegations and do you think Conor lives rent free in Sean’s head?

JK: “I’ll be a hundred percent honest, I don’t follow the sport all that closely in terms of the drama stuff. I rarely miss a card. I watch almost every card. There was a really good card at the weekend and what I normally do is based on what happened on Saturday night, I have a lesson plan for the following week. I really like to use fights as lessons for my team because I know they’re watching the fight.

“If I have a technique I want to teach, if I can bring that back to a fight that just happened. It’s fresh in their mind and they see the efficacy of the technique. It’s like that worked then so it’s going to work. It gives them more confidence in what I’m teaching them. I’m very obsessive about following the fights and keeping my eye on if there’s sort of changes or trends happening, whether it’s in certain takedowns or certain strikes that get popular one month and then fall apart the next month. As for these kinds of soundbites, and this fighter said that, I don’t really click on any of those articles so I don’t really know what Sean is saying but I wish him all the best.”

Q: Dana White says he’d happily see Alex Pereira drop back down & fight at middleweight, does Dana have much influence when it comes to fighters choosing which weight to fight in?

JK: “He’s certainly not going to be demanding anybody does anything. I think Pereira would struggle a lot trying to go back to middleweight again. If anything, I could see him going up a weight class. But going back to middleweight? That’s tricky, that’s a difficult one for me to imagine. The guy is enormous. I don’t know if you’ve ever been around him, but he’s an absolutely huge unit. Dana has his opinion, which he’s not afraid to give. But certainly in my experience, he’s never been on the phone and said ‘Hey, you got to drop to this weight class’.”

Q: What is it like dealing with Dana in the UFC? 

JK: “I’ve always had a very positive relationship with Dana. At weigh-ins I’ll see him on stage and it’s usually a sort of a brief interaction. He’s actually running a really big boxing event this month in Dublin. I’m not quite sure how it happened, but there’s an Irish boxer ‘King’ Callum Walsh fighting. I actually would love to know how that happened and I have no idea how they became friends. I think Callum’s from Cork and all of a sudden Dana took him under his wing and has promoted him quite extensively, which is really generous of him to do. And now he’s bringing a massive boxing event to Dublin and I think Dana will be here for it. That’s happening pretty soon [September 20th].

“I think Dana has done incredible things for the fight game in general, but I’ve never had to deal with Dana as a manager. I hear stories about that. He’s a tough guy to deal with. He’s a tough businessman. I only ever deal with him as a manager. To say friend would be way too strong, but like an acquaintance. Last time I saw him, I was chatting to him about his health regime. He’s really turning his health around. He looks in incredible shape recently and lost some weight, but more important than that I think he had some blood pressure issues. And so he was giving me some tips on that and offered very kindly to put me in touch with his doctor. I actually need to follow up on that. When I see Dana next I’ll get your man’s number!”

Q: Do you think bringing in a 165 pound weight class is inevitable for the UFC?

JK: “I don’t know how they have not already. If you think of the weight classes, it’s 135, 145, 155 and then 170. Most men are between, let’s say 155 and 185. That’s kind of the average weight class homosapien and yet within that group is where there’s a jump of 15 pounds, so I never understood that. I think they still have a flyweight division. And then every 10 pounds up till 205, that would make sense. It truly is one of the few real global sports.

“I think the sport is still only in its infancy, truly globally speaking. There’s a big amateur organisation called IMAF and I believe they’re in a hundred countries now and you have all of these kids under 10 years of age that have been trained in MMA as a sport. Not doing a bit of kickboxing and a bit of jiu jitsu training, MMA as a standalone sport. And when those guys start coming into their late teens, early twenties, we’re going to see another big jump in the evolution of the sport. More people want to be involved so I think it would be great timing for the UFC and indeed other organisations to add a couple of weight classes in those, in those popular weight areas for sure.”

Q: In terms of MMA being incorporated into the Olympics, is that something you could see happening? And how beneficial would that be to the sport? 

JK: “I’m the president of the Irish amateur MMA and it would be huge. I would love to see it happen. My own son is four years old and he did his first class in my gym last week. And to think he’d be able to represent his country in the Olympics will be an amazing honour and it’d be a great goal to aim for. Pankration was one of the original Olympic sports, which was their version of mixed martial arts, a combination of boxing and wrestling, and that was in the first ever Olympics Games. I think it’s time for it to come full circle and reintroduce pankration under its more modern name, mixed martial arts.

“I really had high hopes that because the next Olympics is in LA and with the UFC being so big in America, I thought maybe they could twist some arms and get it in there as a demonstration sport. I mean, you have breakdancing in the Olympics. Fair play to breakdancers out there but if you look at the martial arts in the Olympics, if you want to call them that you’ve got, boxing, wrestling, judo, and taekwondo. What is MMA? It’s the combination of those sports.”

Q: Who is your MMA Mount Rushmore? (Top 5 past and present fighters)

JK: “Unsurprisingly I’m going to name Conor first because he became the first, simultaneous two weight world champion. That’s no small feat, but also what he did for the game in general, his general introduction of MMA to a whole world who would have never seen it really. He’s the first and maybe the only one to truly cross over into let’s say normal life and obviously now he’s in movies as well. A lot of people to be thankful that if you’re involved in the MMA industry, you probably had a few guys walk into your gym because of Conor’s influence.

“Number two I’ll say Fedor Emelianenko. He’s one of my favourite fighters of all time. Incredible Russian fighter. I’m going to say BJ Penn, another two weight world champion. Incredible skill set. At four I have to go forAnderson Silva. I think some record number of title defences and just so skillful, you watch him back in the day when he was fighting someone who’s a kind of a friend of mine, Forrest Griffin. Forrest is so tough, so durable, so good and Anderson made the poor guy look like he’d never trained. He has amazing skills. At five I will say Rhonda Rousey and not just for her amazing victories in the UFC, but the fact that she really introduced women’s MMA to the world. Dana was pretty headstrong all those years saying he would never have women in MMA. And I think he took one look at her and said, let’s get women in MMA. So, there we go. That’s my five.”