John Kavanagh and George Lockhart break down Conor McGregor’s UFC losses, exposing flawed weight-cut science—like DecaScan inaccuracies—and his risky 171-to-140-pound drops, which harmed performance. Lockhart’s military-backed nutrition methods (e.g., Yoel Romero’s 32-pound cut) contrast with generic diets, while Kavanagh praises McGregor’s sparring but critiques his post-fight response to Khabib’s cage attack. They debate leg-kick boxing, citing Cool Vince’s K-1 defeat and Floyd Mayweather’s likely avoidance, and predict Diaz 3 as the next high-profile clash. McGregor’s discipline and minimal media focus stand out, yet visa threats for Khabib’s illegal headshot on Gaudisch highlight MMA’s unchecked aggression, proving fights aren’t just sport but dangerous confrontations. [Automatically generated summary]
I mean, it's a staple of wrestlers overhand right and close, but he doesn't generally do that.
He's more jabbing than close, but that was a great shot.
The style of takedowns, everything was kind of what we expected, and we spent a lot of time in preparing for that.
I kind of expected Round 1 for sure going to get a takedown.
The goal of Round 1 was to get out of it, but still having energy.
We didn't want to put a huge amount of effort into trying to get back up in Round 1. It's seen that happen many times in his other opponents.
They kind of got back to the stool really tired.
Round one, make them pay, you know, do our best on the way in, fight as hard as we can, but if we do end up down, which is against defence, figured it would be there.
Try to stay seated up.
If we end up on our back, just try to play guard until the bell, except it'll be a 10-9 round.
For round 2, again, same plan.
Do as much damage as we can, but if we end up on our back, don't put a huge amount of effort into trying to get up.
He's an absolute master at re-grounding people.
That turned out to be a 10-8 round.
He got some good shots there and obviously he landed the great right hand.
So that was a bit more than we hoped for.
Round three, things started kind of turning a little bit in our favor, and we did a lot better at keeping it in the middle, defending the takedowns.
You know, we wanted to make sure that his weight was a little higher than, you know, obviously with the boxing, with Floyd, you know, speed is everything.
And we wanted to kind of slowly drop that weight down.
But with this, we wanted to keep him as big as possible and then, you know, cut all that weight so he can...
I was better at cutting the weight than I was actually at fighting.
Learning through this process, okay, this works like this and this works like this.
I mean, there's so many studies that are out there.
You look at the NSEA, you look at PubMed and all these other things.
You see a study over here and you see a study over here and you're like, okay, we're going to put these two together and actually see in terms of actual weight cutting.
It's rough because...
Nobody's ever actually going to do a study with the level of dehydration that these guys are doing.
You know what I mean?
Like, oh yeah, this is how you rehydrate these people.
It's never going to happen.
So, you know, luckily we've, you know, the amount of cuts that we do, we work with over 200 UFC fighters.
I mean, just in the UFC. I mean, obviously we work with a lot more, like Bellator and stuff like that.
In the Marine Corps, I was a combat conditioning specialist.
I was actually an instructor trainer.
So, like, when you go, there's a place called the Martial Arts Center of Excellence, right?
And they actually handpick Marines.
I've kind of been in certain situations in the military.
Brian Stan was actually a part of that and then they actually started something called the Combat Conditioning Program and I was actually the guy that they actually I had to teach all that.
So they sent me everywhere.
I got to work with the people from the Olympic Training Center.
I got to work with PI in Florida.
Just learn from a lot of different people.
But in terms of, like I always say this, from weight cutting, there's actually not a course.
If you're a dietician or whatever, that's great.
That doesn't help you in terms of weight cutting.
You go to somebody who's like, hey man, I'm going to lose 30 pounds in three days.
We base everything off type, timing, portion size, or homeowner responses of foods.
You know what I'm saying?
Most diets nowadays, they actually, you know, they kind of stick to one aspect, like Atkins diet, you know, it sticks to types of foods, you know, like zone diet is portion size.
We actually stick to all of them, you know, like type, timing, portion size, hormone response food, because, you know, If you look at all diets, they all work.
All diets will work.
If you're consistent to every single diet, if you do the same thing every single day, you're going to see results.
But are you going to get to a specific weight?
And is your performance going to be increased over a fight camp?
So if you're aerobic, your body's primary source of fuel is going to be more fats.
Your brain's primary source of fuel is going to be carbohydrates or glucose.
So we give them a lot of fruits.
The glucose feeds the brain.
A lot of fats.
We make sure that we get a good measurement of omega-3s to omega-6s.
Basically, about a two-to-one ratio.
So, throughout the day, you know, if they're aerobic throughout the day, we give them, you know, fruits, vegetables, omega-6, omega-3s, and then once they start working out, then, you know, depending on the workout, then we start giving them, like, more starches and stuff like that.
So we'll take their MET and we'll go on a scale of 1 to 10. And we multiply that by the actual amount of weight that that individual has, like a kilogram.
So we'll say their intensity is a 10. Let's say they have a hard workout.
Intensity of 10, we multiply that by the amount of kilograms that that individual has.
I believe, and then look at the formula.
Basically divide that by 200 and multiply that by the duration of the actual workout.
And that will give us the amount of actual calories that that individual is actually using for that workout.
So every workout is going to be different.
So if you're doing like...
What's the word I'm looking for?
Like training in terms of like guard passing and stuff like that.
It's going to be a lot different than if you're sparring, right?
So a lot of people, they actually feed themselves the same way if they're doing form versus actually training, like sparring.
They do the same thing.
I'm going to take two scoops of protein.
I'm going to take this, this, and this.
You have to actually feed the body differently every single workout, right?
So we'll take that formula.
We find out, okay, this is the amount of calories that this individual burns during this period of time, and then we actually break it down even more.
Because if you jog and you burn a thousand calories, right, and if you lift and burn a thousand calories, well, it's the same amount of calories, but you have to refuel the body differently because if you jog, your body's using a lot more fat.
If you're lifting, your body's using a lot more carbohydrates.
Again, it goes to giving the body what it needs when it needs it.
So we'll look at him like, okay, well, if it's a level 10, and then we'll literally, and we have the formulas for it, so a 10 would be 80-20.
So you find out the amount of calories this individual is burning.
And then GLUT5 would be fructose, which would be fruit, right?
So I'll break down fruit for them.
And then dextrose is basically like any type of sugar that you have, you know what I mean?
Basically, we incorporate sugar, fructose, and salt.
You put those together.
Now, the funny thing is, when you incorporate caffeine, it's been shown that caffeine post-workout, you'll see four times the amount of glycogen in the muscle post-workout if you take the caffeine.
If you look at every study out there, the oral rehydration is actually better for the body.
It's so funny.
Nowadays, everybody's like, oh, organic, earth-grown nutrients, you've got to have this, you've got to have this.
And then when it comes to cutting weight, it's like, Now let's jam a needle into their freaking body and let's shove 9,000 milligrams of sodium chloride in their freaking veins.
And that's got to be good.
If they were fighting the same day, 100% be like, yeah, you need an IV. But they have over 30 hours to rehydrate.
The body can do that on its own.
And it's going to be a lot more natural in terms of absorbing nutrients and giving it what it needs.
Here's the thing.
When a lot of these guys cut, I break it down like this is the exact amount of sodium that your body needs.
A lot of people, they were taking in two bags of IVs, right?
One bag is 9,000 milligrams of sodium chloride.
They would take in two bags, that's 18,000 milligrams of sodium chloride.
And they wouldn't take in any potassium.
Your body has got to have a balance of everything.
Like omega-6.
You look at fats.
There's so many studies that say, oh, omega-6 is bad.
It causes all this inflammation.
Yeah, omega-6 does cause inflammation.
But your body needs it.
Your hair needs it.
Your organs need it.
But it needs a good amount of omega-3 to kind of clear that out.
Same thing.
Sodium needs potassium.
When you look at a muscle pump, you're like...
Sodium goes into a muscle, potassium comes out.
Well, how does potassium get back in?
Well, it needs magnesium.
Magnesium.
If you don't have magnesium, you have to have this balance.
And it's funny because these guys, you know, back in the day, they would take an IV, and then what'd they have?
They'd have soup, and they're like, ah, and they'd take more salt.
They would never basically look at the amount of potassium.
Now these guys are like, hey, George, what do I take?
And I'm like, okay, eat this, eat this, eat this, and I think it's a lot healthier for them.
Well, it's real bizarre that this is such a gigantic sport.
I mean, it is an enormous sport.
But in terms of even the way people train...
I mean, there's not a consensus on what's the correct way to do it.
And then when it comes to nutrition, there's not a consensus.
And then there's the rehydration and dehydration factor that doesn't exist in any other sport other than boxing.
And I think it's more extreme in MMA than it is even in boxing, for the most part, right?
It's such a crazy thing that you've got these super high-level athletes that are dealing with gym bros I mean, there's a lot of, like, real high-level athletes, and I've talked to their trainers, and I'm like, what did you just say?
Like, you're a gym bro.
How'd you get with this guy?
This guy's a fucking world-class fighter, and he's got some schmo from fucking Gold's Gym.
No offense, Gold's Gym, but you know what I mean.
Some fucking guy's got a tub of shit with him, and he's like, gotta take three of these and four of those, because I read about it in Weider.
You know what I mean?
They don't really have a strict protocol.
And it's not really based on science and blood work and real science.
But the point is that even the best of the best, world-class fighters, they don't necessarily have a background in nutrition or kinesiology or exercise physiology.
They don't necessarily know exactly the right way to approach things.
I mean, shit, for years, fighters wouldn't even drink water in between rounds.
They thought water made you cramp.
There's a lot of crazy shit involved in this sport still to this day.
I tell you, our goal is by the end of next year, we're going to work with every single fighter in the UFC. We have over 200 fighters in the UFC right now.
They're like, oh, they're drinking salt water during the week of the fight.
And I hear guys from ATT like, hey, George, why the fuck would they do that?
I'm like, Because that's asinine.
I have people fucking be like, oh, we don't want to cut carbs out because it takes a specific amount of time to rehydrate carbs.
They're thinking it takes like four fucking days.
But when you actually do it properly, This is all scientific shit.
Like, it literally takes 24 hours to rehydrate somebody's fucking glycogen storage.
If you fucking take their water, right?
So every gram of glycogen holds on to three grams of water, right?
And we can literally find out, based on the amount of muscle tissue that an individual holds, exactly how much glycogen their body holds and how much water that is attached to that glycogen.
So, you know, we give the body what it needs, you know, when it needs it, you know, and it's funny because we never have a base diet, you know, like if somebody is basically, they don't have an anaerobic Workout throughout the day.
A ketogenic diet is perfect for them.
They don't need those carbs.
You actually need a ketogenic diet because you give the body what it needs when it needs it.
When you're aerobic, your body's primary source of fuel is fat.
Your body's primary source of fuel is going to be that fat, so what do we do?
We feed it the fucking fat.
If you're anaerobic and you're training throughout the day, then we actually incorporate a lot more carbohydrates.
Super smart guy, but more emphasizes carbohydrates, whereas Dom D'Agostino, they're both scientists, like legit scientists.
He emphasizes ketogenic diet.
It's a very interesting conversation because Lane really never was on a ketogenic diet for a long period of time, whereas Dom emphasizes that when you get fat adapted over longer periods of time, four to six months, Your body, there's some legitimate benefits with cognitive function and even performance benefits as time goes on.
But certainly, in terms of your energy level, your ability to perform without...
You're putting oil in your gas tank and putting gas in your oil pan.
You know what I'm saying?
Everything that you do, you know, respiratory quotient, you break down your body.
Your body's using fuel in a different ratio based on the activity that you have.
And it's like, well, if you're giving your body carbohydrates, but your body's using fats, why the fuck is that healthy?
You know what I'm saying?
It's not.
It's so simple.
People follow this program, bro, and they're like, holy shit, I'm never hungry, I have energy, this, because you're giving the body what it needs, what it needs.
Honestly, they can have whatever they want at the right fucking time.
If you look at the metabolic equivalent, for somebody like yourself, let's say you go on and you fucking bust a fucking workout out, you can burn 800 calories.
You know you can burn 800 calories in a workout, no problem, right?
So if you're burning 800 calories and you're anaerobic and your body's primary source of fuel is going to be carbohydrates, let's just take all the formulas and all the math out of it for a sec, but let's say 800 calories.
There's four calories for every one gram of carbohydrates.
For you to fucking replenish what you need, you'd need 200 grams of carbohydrates just to replenish what you just did for a workout.
How many motherfuckers do you know take 200 grams of carbohydrates post-workout?
What if I beat the shit out of the bag, fucking run around the block, do hill sprints and come back 5 pounds lighter or whatever, just give me a number.
Bro, dude, this is the thing about studies and shit like that.
I mean, like, it was like, this is the best thing for fucking post-workout, right?
Same fucking...
That was from the NSCA. Then the NSCA came out with another fucking study.
It was like, well, you know, like, 89% of fucking Latino population is lactose intolerant.
93% of the African-American population is lactose intolerant.
And fucking...
It was like 90% of the fucking Asian-American population is lactose intolerant.
I'm like...
You guys literally just did a goddamn study and you're showing that most of the goddamn population is lactose and tyrant, but you're saying that the milk is the best goddamn thing to fucking give?
That's stupid.
It's asinine.
You know, like, casein protein, like, again, it's easy.
If somebody's like, if you take, you know, chocolate milk post-workout, but like, Joe, what are you using when you work out?
What is your body using when you work out?
Is it using carbs or is it using protein?
If your body's using protein as a source of fuel, you're fucking doing something fucked up, man.
You know what I'm saying?
Like literally, your body goes through gluconeogenesis, it'll turn protein into fucking carbohydrates, but that ain't the way it's supposed to fucking be.
Rhonda Patrick went over it pretty much in detail and she thinks what's going on for the most part where people are seeing results is basically calorie restriction.
Because you're just not eating that many calories.
You're eating only steak.
In terms of like how much you're using throughout the day.
And a lot of these people are eating like one, two meals a day and they're losing massive amounts of weight.
They're down to the weight they were when they were 21 and they feel fantastic.
All the gut problems go away.
All the different issues they have with autoimmune diseases go away.
And she's like, this is all mimicked by calorie restriction diets.
She's like, this is most likely what you're experiencing.
And there's a bunch of other nutrition experts that are sort of examining that because it's become quite a movement.
10% of your metabolism actually comes from breaking down food.
10%, that's a fuck ton of calories, man.
That's a lot.
When we actually come to rehydration, in terms of the fighters getting ready for the fight, we actually take a look at that.
Do you want your body breaking food down while you're fighting and stuff like that?
Through your enteric nervous system, your body's not going to be like, you know...
We're going to break this food down.
No, actually, with your enteric nervous system, if you see a fucking bear, the body's like, hmm, are we going to break down food or are we going to run from the fucking bear?
The body's like, we're going to fucking run.
So it sends an epinephrine through the body.
You stop digesting.
But that doesn't mean that shit's not stealing your fucking gut.
But with that being said, in terms of the meat and shit like that, yeah, man, a large percentage of that is actually used to break down foods.
And it's like...
We talk about glucagon, and I get so many fucking people that are like, that's not how the body works.
You know, like, I get that's not how the body fucking works.
When you fucking eat the protein, like, it's not like your body's like, oh, we're gonna shoot glucagon through the fucking system.
But how many times have you eaten a fucking high-pancake fucking breakfast, and you're like...
Let's go fucking kick today's ass.
No, you were like, fuck, let's go back to bed.
You have a big ass omelet.
You're like, suck today's dick and let's fucking go kick some ass.
You know what I'm saying?
You have energy.
Because glucagon is fucking through your system.
Obviously, it's not the way the body works, but in essence, when you're taking specific things at specific times, you're going to promote the usage of carbohydrates more or less.
And I'm like, dude, if a motherfucker is whooping ass at 145 and 155, when they were talking, and he was a champion at 155, I'm like, why the fuck am I going to try and cut this guy?
When you're with a fighter for a camp, you get super close, and I'm like, bro, it's fine to get close with him, but it's okay to root for him, but we never get to a point where we root and we talk shit about the other fucking team, because chances are we work with him.
And we worked with Khabib, you know what I mean, for a long time, you know what I mean?
You know, and it's funny because I think that there's like a language barrier and things, but you know, there's also like...
Let's say you're cutting weight, right?
And you're looking at like, okay, common sense.
If I drink water, I'm going to fucking be heavier, right?
So fuck drinking water.
What you don't realize is you got your renal, you know, angiotension aldosterone system that's fucking going to be activated if you fucking cut back water early.
Yeah, anytime Ido's in Europe, he tends to drop into Ireland.
We have a great relationship with him, and he'll play around with that.
You know, the reality is most of our time is going to be spent on the fundamentals of MMA. And the great thing with Ido is, especially in training camp, he'll come in near the end where you're just tired of doing single leg defenses.
You're tired of doing pad work.
And he comes in, he does all these fun games.
So we're still working out.
He's firing his brain in different ways.
He's working on coordination, on balance.
For me, as the head trainer, it's like, it's a nice break.
I'm sure there's John Wayne Power I heard say that, you know, when you have a fight coming up, you know how many miles you're going to run, you know how many kicks you're going to throw.
Every now and again, you want to come in and want to do some Ong back, jumping in the air, spinning elbows and stuff, because it breaks the monotony.
MMA is fantastic.
Because it's all the martial arts together, you're almost never going to get bored because you can always do something different.
But there's still a repetitiveness to it that it's nice to break with something unusual.
If there's one thing I could change is that I think I was too defensive in my mindset for this training camp.
But Habiba's very specific types of takedowns, depending on where he is, whether it's shooting on the low single in the middle, and then on the fence.
Long before Conor was due to fight him, I loved watching him.
That's kind of my area, defence.
I just love, right from the Randy Couture days, how to use defence and Habib does it to a new level.
You know, one of the takedowns he hit on Conor, he hadn't actually done it until the Aliquinta fight, so it was nice that we kind of got to see that, the high crotch.
I see a bit of DC in that, the high crotch and then Tripp on the far leg.
I think he blocked it once, but he did catch him with it.
So, you know, it was very specific takedowns.
Definitely for this training camp, it was the most specific that we went.
And then I remember about a week out or whenever it was, he did an interview and he said, well, if he doesn't make it, I'll fight Tony.
I don't care who it is.
And I was going, damn it.
I hadn't even looked at Tony's fights in so long.
So me and the other coaches started like, okay, great.
And we tried to mimic it as close as we could in the gym and I brought in guys that he didn't know and I would say this is fight day and he would do with George exactly what he's going to do on fight day and we'd have a referee to get the fight feel.
Is he at a position now where every fight has to be a gigantic super fight and is that a problem in that you know what I thought after the fight after it was all over I was like you know what a good fight would be would be him versus Pettis like that would be a really good fight and it would be a really interesting fight in terms of stylistic matchup and it would be a great fight I think for Conor to sort of Just get a wild three-round,
or I guess it would probably be a main event, it would be five rounds, but it would be a wild fight that would probably favor him.
That shit doesn't happen in MMA. But it doesn't happen in MMA. Well, it doesn't happen in the UFC. Specifically the UFC. Yeah, and there's an issue with that, I think.
But the wild fights that he could have at 155 pounds, whether it's James Vick or Justin Gagey or Pettis, there's good fights for him that aren't necessarily Khabib, they aren't necessarily Tony Ferguson, but they're a good fight to get that timing back, get everything locked in.
Yeah, I'm sure that did and that was part of the strategy for one and two.
If we did end up on our backs was not to put a massive amount of effort into getting up, just play guard and stay safe because the next round starts on defeat and try to do damage there.
But it's still tiring.
Conor gets a hard time about his cardio all the time.
Who has Khabib faced that didn't look like that after two rounds?
I mean, you could speak to this better than anybody.
How much...
How much is too much in regard to training for a fight like this?
Maybe training for a three-round fight is the way to go when you have to fight a five-round fight.
So you're not so fucking beat up by the time you get to the fight.
If you already know how to fight five rounds, you've already done it.
If you're a guy like Conor who's just got so much experience in the game, it might be that...
It's like there's a point of diminishing returns in terms of your strength and conditioning, and that guys just go too far, push too hard, and just don't have it.
How many times have you seen a fighter be overtrained when they fight?
If you wanted to do a rematch, and if the UFC did grant a rematch, then this is...
Obviously dependent upon how the Nevada State Athletic Commission handles the legal ramifications of him jumping out of the cage, attacking Dylan Dennis, the subsequent brawl, the chaos that ensued, visas.
I mean, you're dealing with a lot of legal shit in this fight that could hold things up.
You know, my favorite fighter back in the day was Fedor.
And there was a man that barely said anything, and the purest, if you want to say, loved him.
But he was also fighting mostly in Japan, and it's different...
It's a different culture than here.
You could be that guy.
I almost have the two extremes.
I've Gunnar Nelson, who you never hear a blip out of.
And then I have Conor, who's the other end of the scale.
You can only be true to yourself, but I look at their followings and their sponsorship deals and their fight purses and stuff, and it's obvious which one is doing better.
If we can agree on the object of prize fighting is to make money and that's it, The object of martial arts, I think, is very different, but the object of prize fighting, and don't ever lose sight of that, as soon as I hear a fighter saying it's for some other reason, I'll try to make him retire as quick as possible because he's not being smart.
You're taking damage for money, and keep that in mind, no matter what your choices are.
And if you're such a strong personality in the gym, definitely.
I can spot the 18-year-old walking in with the man bun and the suit telling me he's going to be the next year.
I probably would have been the same at 18. It's no different.
But through, again, months and years of conversations, not telling them what to do, but conversations, I sort of say, this is a completely natural thing to do, but start to find your own voice and find your own way.
If that's who you are, you enjoy that side of it, run with it.
If it's not who you are, even the fans will see it through very quick as well.
The fans can see when someone is genuinely doing something and doing it as an act.
So when you're dealing with somebody for this long, you also know there's personalities, you know, and it's one of the reasons why George worked so well.
He kind of fit it into how the team's structured.
So you might bring in someone who's, and I get so many great offers from guys with really good credentials, but what is the use of that if him and Conor are going to clash?
No matter which athlete I'm dealing with.
So actually, to me, even almost more important than anything is that they can connect and that they have a good working relationship.
Now, let me state very clearly as well.
Sergei is a fantastic wrestling coach.
He comes from generations of wrestling in Moldova.
He's got the real slick kind of Russian style of wrestling.
You know, it's not just about kind of power doubles.
He's very, very slick.
And we have some very, very slick wrestlers in the gym.
So I think we're good there.
But guys coming in, passing through, and we had Helen Morales there, the female Olympic gold medal.
I think she was the first American female to get a gold medal.
She did Alessa McConnor and it worked out brilliant.
So things I think would happen naturally like that.
I have a busy gym.
I'm always getting fighters coming through.
We're always stealing techniques.
I tell my guys to be technique vampires.
Get what you can out of everybody that comes through.
You're never going to have a mindset of, I don't need to learn from that guy.
That guy knows something that you don't know.
So that, but for a structured, okay, let's train with this guy for three months and we're going to...
That's not really how skill is passed on, as far as I can tell from my experience of it.
It's got to work personality-wise.
And like I said, I... Is there some secret technique that...
I remember watching an interview with Dan Henderson and he was saying when he started doing jiu-jitsu tournaments, he found it so strange that they wouldn't warm up with each other or that they were afraid to see his deep half guard move.
Because in wrestling, I know what you're going to do.
You know what I'm going to do.
It's just going to come down to who can hit it on the day.
And he would actually warm up with guys he was going to be competing with.
Sometimes even because it made the match a little bit better, he had a bit of a vibe going.
I don't think there's any big secret move that Conor could learn that would suddenly reverse on Habib.
I thought we did quite well.
He almost took him down at the start.
We were ready for that low single and we had a little technique for there and he actually sat him down for a moment.
He didn't drive in.
We should have dug the underhook there and went into jiu-jitsu mode and started passing.
But instead he withdrew and Khabib did a great job.
He followed him back up in the single and then got a finish.
So I don't think it's necessarily about trying to bring in a four-time gold medalist and make a big wrestling program that doesn't quite fit in what we do.
Do you think, though, that it would help him to bring in high-level wrestlers to have intense sparring sessions with him so he could feel that kind of pressure that could be put on him?
Because the level of grappling that that guy brings to the octagon, it's very difficult to match.
So you feel like there's enough room for improvement that if you could go back to the drawing board and give yourself a few months, that you could get him to a point where he could have more success?
Yeah, we made the comparison between Kevin Randleman when he fought Mirko Krokop, that Krokop was so worried about the takedown, Randleman comes with a big punch and knocks him out.
And I tell them, I will say to them, I say two things.
One, he's going to talk to you.
Don't take it personal.
This is how he lives.
And two, it's going to be a fight.
So protect yourself.
Be ready.
Now, I referee and I'll be quick to step in.
But we have to do this.
We have to get a level of training that's going to match the intensity of a contest.
Right.
Are you going to do that all the time?
No.
You know, that's only at a certain period of the training camp, and it's only going to be, for us, it's once every four, once every eight days, just kind of depending on how the spar went and how the body is.
The more of that we can do, the better, because the more directly...
It correlates to what we're actually going to do.
But then you've got to be matched against, well, if he was a Jim Moore type guy, I'd have to pull back his sparring because he's taken too many shots.
Conor could go training camp without being hit.
He's so elusive in the case, so good at judging range and so on.
So for him, he can spar all the time.
I think another example of that may be Darren Till.
He's the top dog in the gym, so he can spar all day long because he's never really accepting damage.
But if you're number 10 in the gym, you probably shouldn't spar all the time because you're taking the shots.
For him particularly, he loves fighting.
He loves sparring.
Absolutely his favorite part of training.
He will do that seven days a week and we'll let him.
He trains to other areas, but there's always the glint in the eye when it's, what's today?
Like for a Mayweather fight, you would think six weeks or six months or something along those lines.
But I would feel like for Floyd, as great as he is and probably the best ever in terms of boxing technique and not being hit, I mean, he's so elusive, still really wouldn't want a guy like Conor preparing for a long period of time and really getting acclimated.
It was kind of funny how that all came about because when he fought Eddie in November, the year before, I remember shortly after that we were at a function and I kind of pulled him aside and I shook his hand and said, right, you're done.
All the best.
Enjoy the rest of your life.
And he was kind of shocked I was saying this to him, but I said, what else are you going to do?
You're the two-way champion, you've got out the other end of this grind, this meat grinder, with no damage.
You're in a very small percentage and you've made plenty of money.
Often enjoy yourself.
And then time went past, a couple of months went past, and then the Mayweather fights started talking.
And I could understand it because now his grandkids were going to be financially secure.
So it made sense because it was a big payday.
It didn't really make sense for any other reason.
He enjoyed the competition side of it.
No matter what you're doing with Conor, it's going to be competition.
I don't care what it is.
He's going to look, how quick did you do that?
You're like, I just went for a piss.
Yeah, I'll do it quicker.
He's just that way.
So when him started having a bit of a back and forth, he was like, yeah, okay, let's quit the boxing and be the best boxer in the world.
And for me, I was on the outside going, okay, I understand what...
That makes sense to do.
Nothing else was really making sense at the time.
It's going to be damaging.
Boxing is a...
Horrendous sport to prepare for and to compete in because we're just looking at one thing really punches to the head.
You know, I don't know, of course, the body shots as well, but it's so damaging.
The only justification I could see for that was, you know, your grandkids are financially set.
You know, when he came back, he did a spar, he went away.
It all broke because a picture got leaked and then Paulie did a lot of interviews.
He was on the East Coast working a show.
So when he came back, he was coming back to have a fight.
And actually, it was a weird night in the gym because the Fertitta brothers came in, Dana came in, there was a few celebrities came in.
It was a fight, you know, and the referee was there, Joe Cortez, a great guy, and he did 12 hard rounds, and I think there is something being released on Netflix soon, a documentary based around that fight, and it will have all the rounds, so I guess...
Yeah, I mean, of course we have the rounds, we have the 12 rounds, and as far as I'm aware, I just actually did an interview recently there, I think it's a three-part documentary that's going to be on Netflix soon, and so people will get to make up their own minds about it, but...
When they walked out first, and I went to myself, I've no idea what's going to happen.
I'd seen him box some amateurs back home and some pros.
I'm horrendously ignorant to the boxing world.
I just don't really follow it.
And he was schooling those guys, and I was like, yeah, but they're not a world champion.
They're not that elite level.
So that night when he went into the ring with Paul, I was like...
Me and Owen are kind of like, what's going to happen here?
Is he just going to get tooled and then we have to scratch our heads and go, what are we going to do here?
But he came back after the rounds and me and Owen were going, wait a second.
It's not magic.
It's still punching and it's range and there's techniques.
So my confidence was growing.
My confidence was growing.
I knew no matter what happened, it was going to be a good fight.
It wasn't going to be, you know, you could win and just, oh my god, this looks terrible, he's missing whatever he shot, and he's being made look silly.
It was a good fight, you know, it was entertaining.
I think no one in the crowd was saying that was ridiculous.
No one was saying that was a waste of money.
It was an entertaining fight, and it's going to be one of those things that I'll be an older man than I am now, and I'll be talking about the time we...
We went into the boxing world and fought Floyd.
Even on the night, I was kind of just looking, scratching me, what am I doing here?
Right until the end of it, it was still just head scratching and then Floyd coming over at the end and giving his little compliment, you know, he's got a hell of a shot on him, he's tough as nails.
Well, certainly in that fight you could see and what I learned about it was just brilliant to watch Floyd, how he managed his energy.
I think he threw one punch in round one and maybe not much more in round two.
It was just such an amazing strategy and then switching from the usual style to kind of just hands up and walking in and Conor did unload a lot on his forearms.
Very inefficient, which is the opposite of what I would describe Conor's fighting style.
He's efficient.
Very few shots, maximum return.
This was lots of punches, and it was one of the few bits of advice I gave him in the corner that was of any use, because I'm not a boxing guy, was, let's pick our shot.
There's a reason why he's not throwing anything.
You don't throw anything.
This is 12 rounds.
It's almost like there's three parts to a fight.
There's one to four, there's five to eight, and then there's nine to twelve.
And Floyd just worked that beautifully.
And it'd be something that we would definitely do a lot more if we were to ever get another boxing fight.
It was recognized that there's 12 rounds.
Pace yourself.
He was kind of in the MMA mode of just big shots and light the guy up.
But Floyd's the best in the world at not being lit up.
We'd play it around with little stretches of the rules and we'd see what Joe Cortez would pull us up on.
Could we do a little, you know, I'm a Lomachenko fan as well, and he comes from wrestling and you see him doing kind of what almost looked like arm drags and tie-ups and stuff.
So we were trying to use that and we just got broke every time.
We had very little opportunity to kind of, you know, even going towards the back and holding the hip and hitting with one hand.
I couldn't find anything in the written rules that were against that, but we were pulled on it straight away.
Some of the areas where we thought we'd be able to rest and maybe make Floyd use energy that he's unused to, clinch, we didn't get that.
It was immediate breaks.
That's the sport of boxing.
That's just how it is.
So yeah, there would have to be all those type of adjustments.
Do you remember when Cool Vince Phillips fought Masato in Japan?
When Vince Phillips was at the top of his game, when he was a real elite boxer, he was just starting to slide, and he went over and fought Masato in K-1, and Masato just fucked his legs up.
Just fucked those legs up.
It was horrifying to watch.
The only one that I remember that went over there and actually...
Shannon Cannon.
Shannon the Cannon.
Shannon Briggs fought Tom Erickson.
And Tom Erickson cracked him with a couple of leg kicks.
And Shannon actually talked about it on the podcast.
He's like, champ, he hit me with a couple of those leg kicks.
You can get whacked in the head all day long, and most fighters won't even recognize that, but the right body shot, you hit that liver, or the right leg kick, and there's just no gritting through it.
But that would be, if you could somehow or another talk Conor and Floyd into a boxing match with leg kicks, did Floyd actually say that that would be something he would consider?
My parents are not mad about it, but the kids in my gym love it.
It's just one of those things.
Conor's never not going to do that.
In Dublin, where he's from, there was always that guy in the class that was just sharp wit, had the quick reply.
And from the moment I met him, he was just that guy that's like...
You can't make a tiny mistake around him.
You make you feel stupid very quick, you know, being on the end of it.
But I remember that guy in school as well, and it just happens that he has a lethal left hand on top of that.
And then he has the look, and he's just an unusual package that it all came together.
I don't, you know, the build-up for Diaz too.
He didn't stop.
It wasn't like he was going to go, oh, I hope I don't lose this time.
He went in with the same kind of mindset he had and I've no doubt he would go into that fight as fully prepared as we can and he'd be 100% sure in his mind he's going to destroy him in a round because that's how he always thinks.
And it's so appealing stylistically as well, the fight.
I'm a grappler at heart.
I love grappling.
But I also understand that a jiu-jitsu tournament will put people to sleep.
Even if you're into jiu-jitsu, it's hard to watch a jiu-jitsu tournament.
But anybody can see a punch hitting someone in the head and then falling down.
That's exciting.
And him and Diaz, it's such a great personality matchup.
It's such a great skill clash.
You know, if I was to design somebody that's going to bring the best ever corner, he'd want someone that, you know, can hit back and take a big shot and put up at the trash.
I'm president of the Amateur MMA Association back home.
I deal with politicians all the time.
And this is the exact thing that they're arguing with me when I'm wearing a suit on a Wednesday meeting with the Minister for Sport.
So I'm looking at it going, great, that's what's going to be brought up at my next meeting when I'm trying to get governing body status for my life's work, my art, my sport.
And I'm trying to tell plus 60-year-olds that this is legitimate and they're showing me this and you're...
For that, it was terrible.
There's no other way around it.
Like I said, if Habib had done that isolated, I didn't think it was that big a deal.
I didn't think it was that big a deal.
He didn't really hit Dylan with a bit of pushing and pulling.
Who cares?
Your man coming up and hitting, it was absolutely dangerous.
He's a trained fighter, he's bare knuckles, and he's hitting a guy who's tired, who's done hard rounds, who's taken some headshots, and he went for the illegal shot.
There's a reason why you're not allowed to hit the stem of the brain there.
There has to be something, there has to be ramifications for that.
It can't be just like, ah, they're hitting each other.