Coach Kavanagh believes that Conor McGregor will be a better striker following his foray into boxing against Floyd Mayweather Jr.
While there is no sign on the horizon just yet for a return of “The Notorious” to the UFC, Kavanagh believes that he will be a better fighter once he does make his way back to the promotion:
“When would an MMA guy have a chance to take six months just to focus on one aspect of MMA?” Kavanagh told The Daily Star. “Never is the answer, they’re always trying to work on everything. But when he does return to the Octagon, his hands are going to be a lot better than what they were. And I’m excited to see that.”
The SBG Ireland patriarch was quick to defend where McGregor could be lacking, however, given the little we have seen of his ground game in the UFC:
“You know, I was rolling with him two weeks ago and I was wondering how his jiu-jitsu would be,” Kavanagh said. “And I was very annoyed that he took my back and choked me. So he hasn’t lost too much there. Of course, he has to tighten up there before he goes to fight in the Octagon again. But he really does love grappling.
“Even in the lead up to the Mayweather fight, he would still kind of ask you about wrestling or jiu-jitsu, and he’d say, ‘hey, look at this’. I know it’s in his head all the time although he wasn’t physically training it. I know mentally he’s still thinking about it.”
