Why Kavanagh prefers McGregor vs. Diaz not Nurmagomedov
John Kavanagah: “Conor’s skill-set is shutting people’s consciousness off and he’s impossible – a freaking Homer Simpson head, he just keeps moving forward.”
SBGi head coach John Kavanagh spoke recently with Robin Black arguably the best analyst in the sport. It was the Dublin stop in Black’s “part comedy, part Ted Talk, part punch-drunk philosophy” tour.
Conor McGregor is the biggest draw in combat sports, so the big question is who is next? The likely answer is lightweight champion Khabib Nurmagomedov, but that’s not Kavanagh’s first choice.
“Nate Diaz is my favorite fight, by the way,” said the coach, as transcribed by Ben Kiely for SportsJoe.ie. If I could pick a fight for the next one it would be that trilogy. I realize it’s not the fan-favorite. The fan-favorite without a close second is the Khabib fight. But for me, it’s the Nate Diaz rematch.”
“He had already lost to him, it’s a bigger guy, Conor’s skill-set is shutting people’s consciousness off and he’s impossible – a freaking Homer Simpson head, he just keeps moving forward. I’ve seen Conor fight a lot of people that he’s able to walk through and that’s great, it’s fine. It doesn’t really excite me that much, to be honest. But that fight…”
Diaz beat McGregor at UFC 196 on March 5, 2016 in Las Vegas, Nevada. The coach said McGregor immediately wanted a rematch.
“By the time he got backstage, he had a stream of it and we were watching it,” recalled Kavanagh. “The next morning, not off the phone until both Lorenzo and Dana said that would be your next fight. And I’m looking at him and going, ‘Take an easier fight. [Laughs] We’ll make up a story and go back to 155. The motherf***er, you hit him everything, he kept walking forward.’ It really reminded me of Rocky II when your man was trying to talk Apollo Creed out of the rematch.
“He pursued it and he chased it and I could only say at the end of it, ‘You’re a brave motherf***er, because I would do anything to avoid that fight.'”
McGregor won the rematch at UFC 202 on August 20, 2016.
“There’s a photo in my gym and it may be my favorite photo in MMA,” said Kavanagh. “I’d almost say life. Just the look on his face and the work he put in and the positive result at the end of it all… that’s my favorite fight of all time.”
