Efter att Conor McGregor fick se sig besegrad under helgens UFC 264 så uttalar sig nu dennes coach, John Kavanagh, om hur han såg på helgens huvudmatch.
John Kavanagh uttalar sig om Conor McGregors insats
Under helgen som gick så ställdes Conor McGregor (22-6) mot Dustin Poirier (28-6) för en tredje gång under huvudmatchen på UFC 264. Efter matchen valde McGregors huvudcoach, John Kavanagh, att uttala sig om hur han såg på matchen. Han berättade då bland annat att McGregor redan under förberedelserna inför mötet med Poirier ska ha upplevt problem med en skada på fotleden, vilket kan ha lett till att den skada McGregor drog på sig under matchslutet uppstod.
Fokus härnäst är rehabilitering
Det var under en intervju med Laura Sanko som publicerades på instagram som Kavanagh berättade att fokuset för McGregor härnäst är att fokusera på rehabilitering av sin skada.
He’s in hospital right now, I’ll be heading over after this to check in on him. You know, it’s a bitter pill to swallow, this sport has the highest highs and lowest lows. We got to take some time to assess what the next move is. Obviously now, rehab and recovery is where it’s at.
Fokus låg på att hålla matchen stående
Vidare berättade Kavanagh att de under förberedelserna tränat en del på just guillotin-submissions men att planen alltid varit att få matchen stående om Poirier skulle försöka sig på nedtagningar.
I studied Dustin a lot on the fence, his fight with Holloway for example. And I knew Dustin’s head would be there for the guillotine. So we had drilled that a lot. Conor has a very very strong guillotine. A slight tactical error going to the back with it. We drilled getting the finish on the feet or at least it would make the takedown attempt go away and then we’d be back to the center of the Octagon and back to boxing. As somebody who likes guillotines myself, the temptation to try and throw that leg over the back and just get the finish is very very strong, and Conor was the one in there, he must have thought the grip was right and he went for it. That’s what fighting’s about, he went for it. Dustin did an incredible job getting his leg over to the right side of his head to relieve the pressure.
Kavanagh nöjd med McGregors insats
Trots en del “ground and pound” från Poiriers sida var Kavanagh nöjd med McGregors insats i matchen fram till benskadan och han hade planerat att säga till McGregor att fortsätta som han gjort under pausen mellan ronderna.
There was a bit of a struggle to get the head free and then he landed some decent ground and pound. Most of it on the forearms and the gloves, Conor had no marks, no bruises, swelling, cuts, anything like that. So most of it was parried, but for sure that was Dustin’s moment. He’s obviously winning there in the judges’ eyes. When Dustin stood up, Conor got off some nice upkicks. Some of them whizzed by and others landed. So all and all up until that point, let’s say four and a half minutes, I wasn’t concerned at all, I was actually really really happy. And I knew what I was going to be saying between rounds, I was just going to tell him to keep doing what he was doing with the kicks and try to close a bit heavier this time. So we’d be looking to rather than exchange punches to slide back and left hand like he did on Aldo. Look for those kinds of techniques. Slide back left cross, slide back left uppercut, and kind of let Dustin fall into that kind of open space. At the four and a half minute mark, everything’s gravy. Energy looked good, technique looked good. A few adjustments between rounds and I thought we were on track to getting a finish there or at least keep going, keep the rhythm going for the rest of the fight.
Skadan uppstod i samband med spark mot armbåge
Själva skadan på fotleden menar Kavanagh att den hände i samband med att Conor slängde iväg en spark som träffade Poiriers armbåge och att det var just en sådan spark som de tränat under förberedelserna inför matchen.
You can watch this back, there’s lots of clips on Instagram, where he throws a leg kick, he moves away, and then he throws a teep, that’s one of the techniques we definitely wanted to apply in this fight. Obviously being a southpaw, that liver side is there so we were looking to teep in that area. There’s a high danger of catching the elbow, and if you’re watching back you can clearly see that’s where the fracture happened. He very aggressively threw that kick. Dustin shelled with that lead hand, and the foot wraps around the elbow in a similar fashion to Weidman and Silva, they wrapped around the shin. Conor wrapped his shin around the elbow. He stands back on it and you can see the bone almost protrude through the skin. I don’t know how he didn’t fall there. He comes in there, they both exchange crosses, they both miss with their back hands, he goes to step back on it and that’s when there’s that horrifying fold underneath. Again we’ve seen it a handful of times over the years, Weidman and Silva being the big ones. Of course, that’s the end of the contest. So yeah, bitterly disappointed.
McGregors fotled skadad redan innan match
Kavanagh avslöjar även att samma fotled hade tagit skada redan innan matchen och han spekulerar i att det kan vara så att den försvagats av tidigare skador. Kavanagh anser dock inte att matchen är tillfredsställande som ett sista möte mellan McGregor och Poirier.
Little bit of that ankle injury had been aggravated during that camp. We’d gotten a scan on it. Did that have a small part to play in weakening it? I don’t know. There might have been something in there. It seems unusual that a young healthy fit man can wrap his foot around an elbow without there being something there before. But you know, you can play those guessing games all day long. Credit to Dustin, that’s the way fighting goes. He won. It’s an unfulfilling end to the night. I don’t want to put words in Conor’s mouth, but even if it goes in a way where you just get punched out, you can say ‘All right, you got me.’ This doesn’t feel properly finished, so to speak. Closure, that’s the word I was looking for.
Anser det inte rättvist att döma McGregor
Gällande McGregors kommentarer efter matchen anser Kavanagh inte att det är helt rättvist att döma McGregor för dessa då smärtan och hormoner lär ha spelat en stor roll.
His foot is literally hanging down. It’s a clean fracture of the fibula and tibia, it went straight through, the foot’s hanging down. You can only imagine the rush of hormones and what’s going on in your body, the pain, it was on fire. And then someone sits down and sticks a microphone in your face. ‘How are you feeling about the end?’ Come on. Come on! When has he ever not been graceful at the end? Let’s get backstage, let’s get a proper assessment from a doctor. Let’s get an x-ray. So I was pretty miffed at the idea of sticking a microphone in his face at that point.
Inte sista gången vi sett McGregor
Utan att säga för mycket innan läkare får en chans att titta på McGregors fot så tror inte Kavanagh att detta är sista gången vi får se den irländska lättviktaren i oktagonen.
The 24 hour goal for today is to meet with the surgeon and his team after the operation is finished. Get their take on it, get their assessment. It’s not til they’ve opened them up and actually looked at the joint and what’s going on in there that they can tell us what the next while is going to look like in terms of rehabilitation. He truly loves this and it’s hard to imagine him not wanting to come back, not wanting to do this again. Because we really just got this fantastic rhythm. He’s turning 33, which to me is a peaking time where strength meets conditioning and mental and physical and spiritual maturity, everything’s coming together. I think we have a couple of years of this ahead of us.
Mötet mellan Poirier och McGregor under UFC 264 var den tredje gången de två ställdes mot varandra i oktagonen. I nuläget återstår att se om det faktiskt blir ett fjärde möte mellan de två.
