Irish former sparring partner: Conor is ‘quite narcissistic’

Myles ‘Magic’ Price left SBGi some years ago for Team Ryano, and is now at AKA in San Diego helping Khabib Nurmagomedov prepare for Conor McGregor. Price appeared recently on the Eurobash podcast and had unkind things to say about his notorious former sparring partner.

I’ll be honest with you, I never really got on well with Conor within the gym because me and Conor sparred a lot,” explained Price, as transcribed by Peter Carroll for MMA Fighting. I understand the hierarchy within gyms. Even here at AKA you have heated spars, but afterwards we shake each other’s hands, we talk about what we can work on and develop as training partners or as a team. Basically, with Conor, he’s quite narcissistic. He’ll see you as competition. He’s not very nice to be around in the gym. If you’re giving him hard spars, he won’t see you as a friend after a while.

Price said some AKA fighters harbored suspicions when he first walked into the gym. 

Of course, I got a lot of looks, said Price. But I’m the type of guy that can see things from an outside perspective – I have good self-awareness. I expected it to happen before I went in, regardless of what was said between me and Javier [Mendez] about coming over and where I came from, the guys on the team were obviously going to be suspicious. It wasn’t actually awkward. I went in and they were piss-taking more than anything else, even the Dagestanis. Even now when I walk into the gym they’re saying, ‘SBG, McGregor team!’ What’s up?’ — it’s crazy! We train with each other on a daily basis so they know the craic [what ‘s going on]. They know I’m not going over there to [spy].

One of the first guys that came over to me was Khabib. He came up and said, ‘What’s up’, he knew who I was and he knew what the craic was. Another one of the first people I talked to was Ali [Abdelaziz], his manager. He was such a welcoming guy, a lovely fella and really down to earth. He said, ‘We’re all martial artists, we’re all a family. I manage Joe Duffy, a fellow Irishman. I know what the story is, we just have a dislike for Conor McGregor’. I said, ‘That’s probably something we have in common to a degree’. It was surprising how welcoming they were when I got talking to them. I’ve become a part of the family at AKA.”

The Irish fighter was not impressed with what he saw at the UFC 229 press conference.

What I took from it was: Conor looked very emotionally invested,” said Price. “He couldn’t sit still for two seconds — it was an irrational press conference on his behalf. He wouldn’t let Khabib talk, he couldn’t take a deep breath, he was moving around a lot. It’s seemed like an over the top reaction and for me, an emotional reaction like that is bad. If he comes across emotional like that, it’s only a good thing for Khabib.”

[McGregor] kind of said a lot of things that were out of line too that took some rationality away from his persona. That will dribble into his performance on Oct. 6. He’s still a human being. At the end of the day, when we’ve seen Conor crack and underperform, it’s when he’s been emotional.

And Price recounted what Nurmagomedov’s game feels like.

It’s like having a wet blanket on you in every single session,” he said. “When I jump in and do my session with Khabib, it just feels like there is no stopping him, he just keeps coming at you. When people commentate on his fights, it’s [accurate] when they say it’s a shock when you feel what he feels like at first. I imagined what it was going to be like, but that was a whole other level of pressure. It’s calculated, it’s smart, it’s vigorous — it just keeps on coming at you over and over again. His stand up has gone through the roof. He’s going to have some tricks up his sleeve on Oct. 6th, that’s all I’m going to say.

I don’t want to seem biased because I’m over here training with Khabib, because I have a lot of respect for Conor as an athlete. He’s an amazing athlete, there’s no doubt in the world about that. Anyone that questions that is very foolish because I’ve felt him in spars, he’s extraordinary, he’s a hard worker and when he’s mentally on point he performs extremely well.”

My feelings have completely changed since I came over here because I’ve added training sessions and feeling what Khabib is like to my opinion. Khabib is a very good athlete, he’s a dangerous athlete and he can take a shot too. Everybody takes shots in the gym, but in my opinion, Khabib is very hard to hit at the moment. He’s a grinding, hard wrestler and his conditioning is on a completely different level now. Most importantly, his psyche is very strong. He’s very strong mentally and that’s what the deciding factor is going to be in this fight. Anyone that hasn’t taken Conor personally, emotionally or that hasn’t attached themselves to Conor has done well or beaten Conor. That’s what Khabib is doing now. Forget where he’s at physically, because psychologically is where he’s going to win the battle.

If I had to make a quick [prediction] now, I’d probably say round three or round four, Khabib TKOs him. Just ground pound, taking him down, beating on him and the referee stops it.

(18:20 mark)

Price recently signed with Bellator MMA, and hopes to make his promotional debut vs. SBGi’s Peter Queally, or Dillon Danis.