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John Kavanagh, Conor McGregor’s head coach, says that, though he is aware fan consensus has settled on terrifying Dagestani interim lightweight champion Khabib Nurmagomedov as McGregor’s next foe, he would still prefer a trilogy closer with Nate Diaz. The argument he presents put great stock in his pupil’s abilities, and see Nate Diaz as a more interesting stylistic challenge for ‘The Notorious’. Transcript from MMANYT.com via MMAFighting.com:
“Nate Diaz is my favorite fight, by the way,” Kavanagh said. “If I could pick a fight for the next one it would be that trilogy. I realize it’s not the fan-favorite. The fan favorite, without a close second, is the Khabib fight, but for me, it’s the Nate Diaz rematch and I think the Khabib fight is a lot more straight forward.”
Kavanagh, who was in an interview with Robin Black, further elaborated, claiming that Diaz is a ‘bigger guy’ and saying he was gifted with ‘freaking Homer Simpson head’, making a knockout nigh-impossible, and the fight much more interesting.
”For me, he had already lost to him, it’s a bigger guy, Conor’s skill set is shutting people’s consciousness off and he’s impossible – a freaking Homer Simpson head, he just keeps moving forward,” Kavanagh said. “Conor’s bravery in [the fight], I’ve seen Conor fight a lot of people that he’s able to walk through and that’s great, it’s fun and you raise a belt, but it doesn’t it doesn’t really excite me that much, not really. But that fight, if you’d been around him, by the time he’d got backstage [after losing the first Diaz fight], we were watching that night, and then the next morning he was not off the phone until Lorenzo and Dana said that would be his next fight.”
As crazy as Kavanagh sounds, he might have a point in terms of in-cage excitement; a Nurmagomedov-McGregor fight seems to shape up as either McGregor dictating the bout standing up or Nurmagomedov dominating on the ground. There isn’t much overlap in their skill sets to meet in the middle, the way he did with Nate Diaz, and slug it out.
McGregor’s first UFC loss to Nate Diaz at UFC 196 forced him to make extraordinary adjustments and fight against type, efforts that proved just enough to win him a majority decision at UFC 202, in an all-time classic MMA rivalry. Like Kavanagh, I would love to see the pair complete their trilogy, but as he acknowledges, Nurmagomedov cannot be ignored.
Insomnia
This McGregor tattoo took 12 hours
Justin Gaethje said Al Iaquinta is going to ‘bitch out’ of their fight; Al responded by pointing out at least he stands up for himself in contract negotiations. As it turns out, ESPN reports that Al has indeed withdrawn from his fight with Gaethe for undisclosed reasons.
You’re the bitch you’ll fight anyone for anything. Brain dead and broke in 2 years
— Al Iaquinta (@ALIAQUINTA) June 28, 2018
Anthony Pettis casually throwing in a handstand kick in sparring
Whoops
Max Holloway tells me that prior to his last-minute removal vs. Khabib Nurmagomedov at UFC 223, UFC President Dana White told him the event was trending to over 1 million PPV buys. Final reported number was 250-310k.
— Mike Bohn (@MikeBohnMMA) June 27, 2018
Daniel Cormier wins the last scramble on a long hard day of training- that must feel good.
Ever wondered how fast you really have to be to avoid getting shot by a handgun? This is how fast.
Handgun disarms – a reality check
Handgun disarms – a reality check. Can you disarm someone who is pointing a handgun towards you, before he manages to pull the trigger? We took two spec-ops veterans, a Rex Zero 1 FX handgun from REX firearms and tested multiple situations. See the results for yourself. Interested in more videos like this? Sign up for our newsletter and stay updated at all times: https://ufpro.com/subscribe/
Posted by UF PRO on Sunday, June 24, 2018
Pound for pound is a stupid discussion but one we can’t help ourselves from having
Tony Ferguson wants Khabib to unblock him on Instagram
Unblock Me On IG Pussy @TeamKhabib pic.twitter.com/DoKUGaPpUl
— Tony Ferguson (@TonyFergusonXT) June 26, 2018
Immortal Choke is right- once a pummeler, always a pummeler.
Chad Mendes doing cryotherapy- I’ve been in my share of walk-in freezers, no thank you.
Zabit Magomedsharipov and Rustam Khabilov show off their penalty skills.
When your drill partner always holds the mitts too far apart.
The Shevchenko sisters are set to take over the flyweight division
The refs really don’t care about you in judo, so every choke turns into an emergency.
I forgot just how hard Joe Rogan kicks
Super Sage Northcutt has been doing curls in the squat rack since he was 11, and I wouldn’t say anything about it to him either.
Podcasts and Video
Heavy Hands has some news
Brian Ortega
Random Land
Aside from the Supreme Court news, this is the scariest thing I saw all day
Imagine being on a paddleboard and seeing THIS!
Newsflare
Posted by UNILAD on Sunday, June 24, 2018
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