John Kavanagh had many fighters from team SBG at Bellator’s Spring/Summer press conference. The purpose was to announce the rest of the events for the coming months with the fighters from his camp competing at Bellator 241 and Bellator’s London event. He sat in attendance with media when his fighters on stage had a lot of back and forth between the Pitbull Brother’s camp. No one wants the fighters to go at it, unprofessionally but it certainly helps to some degree.
At least that’s what Kavanagh told MMA News when he was asked about his thoughts on what happened on Monday. “Today is an emotionally-charged event, said Kavanagh and added, “You’re sitting next to somebody you might be fighting in one or two fights, they’ll having verbal sparring going on so that’s what today is about. Once we leave this environment, then we’re back in the gym and life carries on.”
However, while things like trash talk may help fuel the attention of fans, Kavanagh said it could also help make his job easier. “I have to say, from from my end when I see those kind of exchanges it’s just going to make my job so easy in the gym.” As a coach, one thing that can be difficult is finding the proper motivation to fuel a fighter’s training, so when rivalries build it gives him something to go to during coaching.
“Sometimes, to get a fighter to push themselves to training really hard for the next contest, you got to encourage them and motivate them,” Kavanagh said. Therefore, when tempers rise the way they did in New York, he says, “That side is taking care of that.” He can remind fighters, “Any day I want to get them a little bit extra push, push them a little bit harder on that cardio training, I just mention that, ‘Don’t forget what you said’ and ‘don’t forget those exchanges.”
In the words of one of my other fighters, we back it up too.
John Kavanagh
Do you think that is SBG’s recipe for success?
