Coach details not if Conor McGregor is a role model, but rather how he is
John Kavanagh: “Conor, he’s usually in around this time, and they see a respectful guy with his uniform on, bowing at his coaches, who will pose for a picture with every single one of them.”
SBGi founder John Kavanagh recently conducted an extensive interview with Paul Kimmage for Ireland’s The Independent that covered his new book Win or Learn, star pupil Conor McGregor, and more. It’s excerpted below, and begins with Ireland coming in second at the IMMAF worlds in Bahrain, behind Russia.
“We came second in the medals table out of 51 nations behind the Russians, who are sponsored by the state and have 65,000 fighters,” expained the coach. “I don’t know if we even have 100 in this country, and they all paid for their own ticket, their own flight. So I was very proud of that – this little island nation, second in the world. … Thirteen [fighters] We won three gold, two silver and three bronze, and all of the gold medallists were SBG, so I was proud of that too. Lee Hammond is probably the biggest name; he’s from Crumlin and quite tight with Conor. He got a bronze four years ago, and a silver the year after that, and it’s lovely to see that progression.”
Kavanagh also referenced the UFC 229 post-fight melee after the Khabib Nurmagomedov vs. Conor McGregor fight, and as well the UFC 223 bus attack.
“I had a meeting with the team here and laid it out for them: ‘Look, if you want to see the future of the sport secured, you’re going to have to realize that it’s on your shoulders. Everything you do is under the microscope now – how you act in the gym; how you act in the nightclub; how you act at an event. And that might not be fair but it’s just how it is. We are not judged the same; those incidents on the GAA pitches and in soccer will be forgotten about very quickly, but anything you guys do will always get headlines. So it’s up to you to act above and beyond (reproach) at all times.'”
The coach was asked if that applied to McGregor as well and the response was definitive.
“Yeah,” said Kavanagh. “Yeah, he does.”
But the coach also intelligently responded to critics who charge McGregor is a poor role model.
“There’s a lot said about Conor: ‘He’s a terrible influence on kids’, ‘He’s not a good role model.’ said the coach. “Sportspeople should be role models, and I get some of that, but there are qualities he has that you would love to see in a child, and one is his extraordinary self-belief. I don’t know where he got that from – it wasn’t from his parents and it wasn’t from me – but I can tell you it’s not an act or something he does for the cameras. That’s just how he is. ‘You can feel any way you want in this world,’ he says. ‘Why not feel like a world champion?'”
“The kids here have trained alongside Conor, he’s usually in around this time, and they see a respectful guy with his uniform on, bowing at his coaches, who will pose for a picture with every single one of them. But it’s not his job to raise them.”
The coach also discussed the sad, sad, sad fact that most fighters end up broke, the way they started.
“That’s something you’ll never see Conor do,” said Kavanagh. “He’s as competitive now with his business, his whiskey, as he is with his fighting. It sounds weird but he doesn’t actually spend much money; everything he wears he’s paid to wear; everything he drives is given to him; he’s not into restaurants, his missus makes his meals. He’s in a fairly modest home. He doesn’t gamble . . .”
“Will he fight again? I don’t know. I know him as a person and know that coming off two losses – even though one was boxing – will be hard for him. But he’s 30, two kids, and has a big whiskey deal that’s making him more money than fighting ever did. Would you get up in the morning to be punched in the face? I don’t think so. But he’ll probably call me tomorrow and say: ‘What did you say that for? I’m fighting in March.’ So I don’t know.”
Kavanagh also understands that McGregor has accomplished an unprecedented amount in the sport, and is no longer a kid. It would be a great time to retire. So he is not calling McGregor regularly, trying to get him to fight again.
“He would certainly have to convince me to go again,” said Kavanagh. “… I love him. I love the whole journey we’ve had but I’d need a good ‘why’. It might be Diaz again because he promised that fight. It might be a rematch with Khabib. But if it was just: ‘Well, they want me to fight that guy’ I think I’d say, ‘I wish you the best.’ … I’ll come back to my reasoning. He has a wife and two kids now and I don’t want him taking more hits than he needs to. Khabib hit him with a punch in that fight that he has never been hit with in his career. And even Superman slows down at some stage.