Conor McGregor’s longtime coach, John Kavanagh, has explained why the former dual-weight UFC champion has seriously bulked up in recent months.
‘Notorious’ hasn’t fought since suffering a catastrophic leg injury in the first round of his third fight with Dustin Poirier at UFC 264 in July 2021.
During his time away from fighting, McGregor has been bulking up and at one point reached 190lbs which is 35lbs away from the lightweight limit he is expected to need to reach for his comeback fight.
According to Kavanagh, McGregor’s recent weight gain is nothing to be concerned about and is simply a result of ‘Mystic Mac’ being limited in terms of the type of workouts he can do with an injured leg.
“You know, Conor is a very hard trainer and he’s not going to go to the gym and mess around,” Kavanagh told news.com.au.
“The only thing he could go is lift weights,” Kavanagh added.
“So guess what? He lifted all the weights.”
“In terms of am I worried in a couple months time he’ll struggle with the weight? No,” Kavanagh said.
“He’s made weight for 15 years, never missed once. For all his boxing fights, all his MMA fights, he’s never missed his weight class once.
“What he is going to come back I believe is much stronger. Any strength and conditioning coach will tell you, it’s not massively difficult to get somebody cardio fit, but it is hard to get them strong. So he’s focusing on what he can do now, which is get strong, strong, strong.”
John Kavanagh Happy For Conor McGregor To Return This Summer
The SBG Head Coach went on to explain that McGregor’s injury has healed and now they can begin the process of getting back into fight shape.
“The purely physical side of it is pretty much done now,” Kavanagh said.
“The bone is well healed. As he likes to say now, he has a titanium shin for kicking people in the head.
“So all the mechanical stuff is done and now it’s a case of starting to reintroduce the MMA-style drills. Because the way you move, it’s a little bit less predictable and you don’t want to do that until you really are structurally sound.
“When we start the fitness training, the excess fat and the excess weight will burn off just from the amount of calories you burn doing this sport.
“I think (European) summer time sounds about right,” Kavanagh said.
“We’re kind of just getting back into MMA training so four months of that and couple weeks for high-intensity fight camp training.
“International Fight Week in July is always a big one for the UFC. Sounds like that would make sense.
“Who is the big question. I really don’t know. I really don’t know. Whoever it will be, I’m just excited if Conor’s excited by them.” (Transcribed by FOX Sports)
Do you agree with John Kavanagh? Is Conor McGregor’s new bulky physique nothing to be worried about?