SBG Patriarch John Kavanagh has confirmed that Conor McGregor is putting some serious hours into sparring ahead of his bout with Floyd Mayweather Jr. next month
Speaking in a recent interview with TheMacLife.com, Kavanagh confirmed that star pupil Conor McGregor has seriously stepped up his sparring game in preparation for the biggest test of his fighting career:
“Without going into too much detail – just to throw a number at you – we’re doing four times the amount of sparring for this camp than we would do for a regular MMA camp,” Kavanagh said.
“That’s a huge amount of extra rounds. Whatever other parts you get ready for a fight whether it’s boxing or MMA, without doubt the most important part of that is sparring. That’s the sport. So you can be doing movement drills and weight lifting and running and all of these different things that go with it but number one should be sparring, as long as it’s sensible.”
While observers have suggested that McGregor’s strict focus on boxing ahead of his first foray into the sport as a professional may affect his game when he returns to MMA, Kavanagh disagrees strongly:
“It’s a learning experience. You don’t get to do this too often, where you immerse yourself in one style. I read somewhere that people were saying that this would have a negative effect on Conor when he goes back to MMA; I think it’s only going to have a positive effect. When else could you shelve everything and focus on one art?
“Whatever about the other arts in MMA, Conor came from boxing and boxing was always in his heart. He was always showing me different boxing fights over the years, so now that he really gets to immerse himself in it and drag us all deep into that rabbit hole with him it is fascinating.”
