Den 26:e augusti möts Conor McGregor och Floyd Mayweather i en boxningsmatch i Las Vegas. Inte helt överraskande så har många varit skeptiska till matchen mellan boxningsstjärnan och MMA-stjärnan. Det är något McGregors huvudtränare John Kavanagh är medveten om men han försöker inte ens övertala folk att tro på hans elev. Såhär säger han till A.G Fight:
I think that whatever response I give, it’s not going to change their minds. So, I hope to change their minds on August 26.
Kavanagh tycker att det har varit skönt att bara behöva koncentrera sig på en kampsports-diciplin inför matchen.
As you know when you’re training mixed martial arts, you’ve got to train Brazilian jiu-jitsu and wrestling and Thai boxing. So, this one has been fun to do, just one martial art.
It’s only with the hands, so we were able to put a lot more time into just one martial art, which feels like a luxury. Because, obviously, Conor is a very good boxer. If you watch his MMA fights, he wins a lot of his fights with boxing techniques, but we of course have to work our wrestling defense or jiu-jitsu on the ground. So, it’s been fun to only train one martial art.
Inför matchen har McGregor tagit in experter från boxningens värld, såsom den forne mästare Paulie Malignaggi.
I’ve watched him spar a world champion, and I was very happy with how that went. That confirmed to me that he’ll do just fine on August 26.
Deras samarbete tog dock slut när bilder läckte från sparringen och Malignaggi valde att lämna McGregors team. Situationen tog fart på sociala medier och tränaren förstår inte riktigt vart allt kaos kommer ifrån.
If you follow Conor at all, the lead-up to a fight, it’s social media frenzy. You sign the agreement to be a part of the team. You’re going to be on social media, that’s just… Fighting has changed over the last few years, and Conor has been a big part of fighting changing. And things like Instagram and Snapchat and all these social media things, they’re still quite new, and I think MMA fighters might be a little bit more used to that than boxing fighters.
But yeah, I didn’t see any big deal in a photograph going out. I will say that I haven’t really followed what Paulie has been doing afterwards. I’ve just followed what happened in the ring and I’ve been very happy with Paulie. I thought he was a great sparring partner. I enjoyed the brief company I had with him and I’m very grateful that he agreed to be a part of it, because we got a lot of good rounds out of him and it confirmed to me that a lot of the strategies and techniques we’re going to be using will cross over and will work fine in the boxing ring.
Även utan Malignaggi i träningen är Kavanagh säker på att McGregor är redo inför sin match mot Mayweather. Han säger att om det har varit svårt att hitta sparringpartners som är lika Mayweather så är det förmodligen ännu svårare för Mayweathers team att hitta sparring som är lik McGregor.
Of course, you’re never going to get someone who mirrors perfectly, and Mayweather is obviously very good at what he does. But, I still would find it a lot easier to find somebody to somewhat mimic Mayweather than [it is for] Mayweather, [who] will find it impossible to find someone to mimic what Conor is going to do.
Nobody knows what Conor is going to do. We’re really the only ones who’ve seen what he’s going to do in the fight. And whoever he has brought in to be his sparring partner, it will not be the same as what he’s going to get on fight night, so that’s going to be interesting to see, how that plays out.
