“We are going to pick ourselves up and figure out some of the technical issues that went against us on the night”.
Conor McGregor suffered a massive knockout defeat to Dustin Poirier at UFC 257 this past Saturday, but coach John Kavanagh is confident he can fix some of the ‘technical issues’ in McGregor’s game ahead of the proposed rematch.
The SBG Ireland head didn’t reveal what those technical issues were but was likely hinting at the calf kicks Poirier utilized to his advantage in the second round to set up the KO.
“We had a big fight and unfortunately this time, we came up short but here’s the secret; you live with it, we are all disappointed but we’re OK!” Kavanagh said in a video upload on the Wimp2Warrior Instagram page (h/t Pundit Arena). “In Conor’s (McGregor) case, certainly, the last six months have been amazing. The discipline and effort that he’s put in. When you’ve done that when you’ve left no stone unturned, you’ve made every training session, you made weight the right way, you’ve made the walk, you competed as hard as you possibly could.“
“Competition has two sides to the coin — winning and losing — and sometimes it’s going to fall on the losing side. That’s something you have to get used to — the quicker you get used to failing, the quicker you are going to have success.“
“We’ve woken up this morning, we’re back on the yacht in Dubai and guess what, the sun rose and we all still love Conor. We are going to pick ourselves up and figure out some of the technical issues that went against us on the night, fix them, get back up on the horse and go again. Win or learn.”
McGregor landed some good shots on Poirier in the opening round but failed to adapt to ‘The Diamond’s’ leg kicks in the second. The former UFC featherweight and lightweight champion was also notably overextending with his left hand and leaving himself open to the counter right. Poirier capitalized on those mistakes and put McGregor away with a vicious flurry in the second round.
McGregor is now tied 1-1 with Poirier and has called for an immediate rematch with the vacant UFC lightweight title up for grabs.