McGregor coach blames “obsession” for Poirier loss

Conor McGregor’s head coach John Kavanagh has revealed that their “obsession” with boxing may have cost them against Dustin Poirier.

At UFC 257, McGregor looked pretty good early on against Poirier. He was landing clean shots, he seemed confident and appeared to be in great shape.

The McGregor mishap

Unfortunately that didn’t last long with ‘The Diamond’ picking Conor apart through strong calf kicks and great boxing.

The talk right now is of a trilogy fight that could take place in July. If that happens, McGregor needs to improve massively if he’s going to cause Poirier problems.

One man who has been there every step of the way with Conor is Kavanagh. As such, it was pretty interesting to hear his view on the fight when discussing the matter with BT Sport.

YouTube video

“I describe it as a game of spinning plates,” Kavanagh said. “You’re spinning the boxing plate and you realise the wrestling plate is about to stop, so you have to go spin that one, and then you have to go spin the jiu-jitsu one, you have to spin the kickboxing one. 

“We got a bit obsessed with the boxing one. There was talk of a big boxing fight after that.”

The fight in question was a proposed showdown with boxing icon Manny Pacquiao.

“Our bad, our mistake, our fault – no one to blame. We just have to make sure we have to keep spinning that kickboxing plate and all the other aspects of MMA and get ready for the rematch.”

It was no secret that at least some of McGregor’s attention was likely on that potential showdown with Pacquiao – whether that was enough to cost him the fight against Poirier, only he will know.

Featured image credit: Getty