“The short answer is I don’t know,” Kavanagh said when asked if Conor McGregor would be returning to featherweight.
It seems John Kavanagh doesn’t know if Conor McGregor will ever return to the featherweight division.
McGregor, who captured the 145-pound title in a record-setting time of 13 seconds against Jose Aldo at UFC 194, immediately announced his plans to take on lightweight champion Rafael dos Anjos in an effort to become the first simultaneous two-division champion in the promotion’s history.
It didn’t quite go to plan, as dos Anjos pulled out of the bout at the last minute citing a broken foot. ‘The Notorious’ then accepted a fight with Stockton fan favorite Nate Diaz – not one, but two weight classes above his championship division.
It was a rough night for McGregor who, after winning the exchanges in the first round, got his first taste of defeat in the Octagon after tapping to a rear-naked choke in the second. The Irishman will rematch Diaz, again at welterweight, at the upcoming UFC 202 pay-per-view on August 20.
Kavanagh, who heads SBG Ireland in Dublin and has been McGregor’s longest coach and mentor, said he’s interested in seeing Jose Aldo vs. Frankie Edgar fight at UFC 200 but doesn’t know if McGregor will return to defend the title.
“The short answer is I don’t know,” Kavanagh told Jonathan Shrager of the MMAUnderground, per Jonathan Bradley of FOX Sports. “I’m very intrigued to see the Aldo and Edgar fight.
“I hope Aldo is fully recovered from the bad knockout. I thought (Chad) Mendes went back in there really quick after the knockout against Conor,” Kavanagh said. “People don’t realize the damage it does — it takes a long time to recover, and I think Mendes went down quicker in that fight because of that. Maybe if he’d let himself rest a bit more he might have had more fight for Edgar. I hope that’s not the case for Aldo, (I hope) we get to see a solid version of Aldo and a new kind of improved Edgar, and see what different from the first fight. So yea, let’s see that, and assess after the rematch. It’s kind of those two names and (Max) Holloway kind of in the mix, so it’s an interesting time.”
Aldo and Edgar will rematch for the interim FW title on July 9 at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada, with both men hoping a win will grant them a spot against MMA’s biggest star.
McGregor vs. Diaz II, which is also scheduled to take place at the T-Mobile Arena in Vegas, is expected to headline UFC 202 on August 20.