Coach: I want McGregor to drop 145 belt, move to 155

SBG-Ireland founder John Kavanagh is one of the world’s best coaches, and during an appearance on Ariel Helwani’s The MMA Hour, he said exactly where he wants Conor McGregor to fight next.

It is not 145 pounds.

“I really don’t see the point in it,” said Kavanagh, as transcribed by Marc Raimondi for MMA Fighting. “With all due respect to the 45 guys, especially after that fight with Nate, what are they going to do? What’s anyone going to do to him? I just think anyone he fights at that weight class, it’s almost like he’s cheating with the amount of power he has. He can make the weight, don’t get me wrong about that. And he might do it, just to spite me.”

McGregor crushed then champion Jose Aldo in 13 seconds at UFC 194 last year. If Frankie Edgar had beaten Aldo, too, and won the interim belt, then a unification fight would make sense to Kavanagh. But Aldo won, and the coach doesn’t see the point.

“Unfortunately those guys didn’t keep up their end of the bargain,” said Kavanagh. “They had to go out there and prove they deserved it, prove that they had improved and go out there and beat Aldo and they didn’t. The fight was even more one-sided than their first contest. I guess Aldo had learned from the last time.”

The coach wants to see McGregor move back to 155, beat Eddie Alvarez, and then have a trilogy fight with Nate Diaz as his first title defense. McGregor was the Cage Rage title holder at 155, a “tank” as his coach put it.

“I think it would be nice for him to be the champion, get the belt at 55 and then defend it against Nate,” said Kavanagh. “I think that would be a pretty amazing fight. Maybe in Croke Park in Dublin. I’d push for that. How cool would that be?”

“There’s something Batman-Jokeresque about Conor and Nate. I think they’re going to do this forever.”

“For me personally, I will be pushing for 55. That’s just my big brother opinion. I’d like to see him at 55.”

And right now, McGregor just needs some rest.