McGregor has spent the last month and a half training with American Top Team in Florida, raising speculation that he may be leaving his longtime camp SBG.
Is there a split between Conor McGregor and his longtime coach John Kavanagh? Has Conor McGregor left Straight Blast Gym (SBG) following his loss to Khabib Nurmagomedov? These are questions that have been getting thrown around lately as more and more time passes without a McGregor sighting at Kavanagh’s flagship SBG Ireland gym.
There was even more speculation being thrown around after Conor McGregor bounced across the Atlantic at the start of February to take up residence in Miami, Florida. Now when the Irish superstar isn’t travelling the US promoting his Proper 12 whiskey, he’s training at American Top Team. A month and a half has gone by since he arrived and it’s unclear if or when he plans on returning to Ireland.
But now Conor’s BFF and teammate Artem Lobov is downplaying the rumors, confirming McGregor is still a part of SBG. Via BJPenn.com:
“No, Conor is still with us, we are all still a part of SBG,” Lobov told host Jason Kindschy on the latest episode of BJPENN.COM Radio. “The thing is that many of the SBG fighters that have kind of retired now or whatever, they have opened their own SBG gyms. So we all will often train not only at the main SBG but other SBG gyms. For example, Peter Queally opened SBG Naas and that’s a great facility, so Conor and many of us would often train there. There’s SBG D24 with Paddy Holohan; we’ve got many SBGs now so as a result it may seem sometimes that we’re not all there at SBG HQ, but we still are all a part of SBG.”
Conor’s Instagram does indeed confirm “The Notorious” spent a good amount of time at SBG Naas in January before he left for America. As for that jump, it’s quite likely it has more to do with McGregor’s business interests than a desire to switch gyms, with American Top Team simply being his home away from home.
It’ll still be interesting to see what he does once his next UFC fight is officially booked. McGregor has been extremely active on social media, calling out and congratulating fighters after every event. In a recent interview with a Chicago news outlet, he confirmed he was aiming to return in July for the UFC’s big International Fight Week card – negotiations permitting.
Will McGregor stick with American Top Team for that camp, or will he return home to the fold and work with his longtime coach Kavanagh again?
As for Artem Lobov, his next scrap is on April 6th for Bare Knuckle Fighting Championships against fellow former UFC fighter Jason Knight.