“He’s already harassing everybody to get the rematch, so we would love to rematch.”
Just two days on from his knockout loss to Dustin Poirier at UFC 257 and Conor McGregor is already ‘harassing everybody’ about the rematch, according to coach John Kavanagh.
McGregor had won the first round on the judge’s scorecards but was stopped in the second after Poirier dropped him with a flurry of punches against the cage.
Kavanagh, who has coached McGregor since the latter was a teen, said ‘The Notorious’ wants to get back in the cage ASAP and would like to face Poirier in a trilogy bout before the summer.
“He’s already harassing everybody to get the rematch, so we would love to rematch,” Kavanagh told ESPN following the fight (h/t Danny Segura of MMA Junkie). “I don’t think Dustin is against that. If we can get the rematch before summer, that would be amazing.”
Kavanagh admitted that he would prefer to see McGregor return to the UFC rather than ‘lose him to boxing for six months’.
“If it’s not to be, then I guess I don’t really know. Maybe he (McGregor) drifts off into the boxing,” the SBG Ireland head coach said. “So if the MMA community could help me out here, get behind me, and pester the UFC to give him another fight sooner rather than later – so I don’t lose him to boxing for six months – I would appreciate it.”
With both men now tied 1-1, Kavanagh would love to see the vacant lightweight title up for grabs in the trilogy bout.
“That’s the big drive,” Kavanagh said of McGregor wanting to reclaim the lightweight belt. “It’s 1-1, they’re right up there in the rankings, they’re very popular fighters.
“I think the two of them are a beautiful matchup. Stylistically, it’s beautiful to watch. I’d love to see lots and lots of rounds between the two of them. Dustin is obviously riding high with confidence now with more experience and more weight. He took some of those shots. I’m sure his confidence is super high at the moment. We have to fix that technique with the leg and a couple of other things, as well, but Dustin vs. Conor 3 for the belt in maybe May, that would be amazing.”
McGregor suffered the first knockout loss of his career at UFC 257 and is 2-2 in his last four. The former two-weight world champion is currently #4 in the UFC lightweight rankings and #13 in the UFC men’s pound-for-pound rankings.