John Kavanagh says Conor McGregor nearly fought Justin Gaethje before the COVID-19 pandemic happened.
If the two would’ve fought, it would’ve been a phenomenal fight between two elite strikers. For the SBG Ireland head coach, he thinks Gaethje would be the best fight for McGregor and his style.
“I think the Gaethje fight is probably the best fight I could imagine because he has the style that really matches well with Conor,” Kavanagh said when discussing a potential showdown between Conor McGregor and Justin Gaethje (h/t BJPENN.com). “Gaethje likes to march forward. He sits down on his shots, he throws heavy shots. He doesn’t seem to care about being hit, he likes coming forward. Conor’s always done very well as a counter fighter. Although he does walk forward, he responds to people’s attacks very well.”
Kavanagh went on to say a fight was closer than many fans realized but unfortunately didn’t come to fruition. Gaethje went on to fight Tony Ferguson for the interim lightweight title where he won the bout by fifth-round TKO.
“It was close to being done,” Kavanagh claimed. “It’s kinda sad now that it didn’t happen. We have obviously the coronavirus and how everything went with the world. I think we could’ve been getting ready for that fight any week now if things hadn’t have happened the way they did. But here we are, so all we can do is speculate.”
Justin Gaethje is now expected to fight Khabib Nurmagomedov in September for the undisputed lightweight title. As for Conor McGregor, he has no fight booked but perhaps he could fight the winner.
