McGregor's Trainer: Mayweather on Hold, Eventually Will Happen
By Edward Chaykovsky
John Kavanagh, the head trainer of UFC featherweight champion Conor McGregor, expects a cross-sport fight with Floyd Mayweather Jr. to eventually happen in the future.
For months, Mayweather was beating the drum for a potential ring return in the fall against McGregor. Two weeks ago that rumored fight hit the floor after the UFC announced that a deal was finalized for McGregor to fight Nate Diaz in a rematch on August 20th at UFC 202. Diaz had submitted McGregor at UFC 196.
Mayweather, who retired last September after a twelve round decision over Andre Berto, has been pretty quiet about the subject of his return since the announcement of McGregor-Diaz II.
Kavanagh says the Diaz rematch has placed the Mayweather fight on hold, but he feels the fight is too big not to happen at some point in the future. UFC President Dana White said Mayweather never contacted his company about making the fight, which can't go forward without the UFC's authorization and involvement.
"It puts it on hold. I think that contest will happen eventually but it's on hold for now. I'd be very surprised if it doesn't at some stage. I think it's a bigger fight; I think there's a lot of intrigue about it. I could be 100% wrong. Right now we're focusing on August 20th. We have an important rematch - a mixed martial arts fight - but if in time that fight was to be announced it would not surprise me and I think it would be an interesting one," told Jonathan Shrager of MMA Underground.
McGregor would be a very big underdog in the fight - especially with Mayweather making is clear that a contest between them would have to be a traditional boxing match. Kavanagh says the unusual punching style of his fighter could potentially create problems for Mayweather.
"It's hard to beat Floyd with boxing because he seems to be almost perfect in terms of how defensive he is. I think if you're a classically trained boxer you're gonna lose to Floyd because he just seems to make everybody look quite ordinary. But maybe somebody who doesn't strike like a boxer might be a new look for him. Maybe the odd sly knee and leg kick as well. You get two warnings," Kavanagh said.
"But seriously I think Conor's style is very unusual and Floyd is - I'm personally a fan of his style. I love watching him. I love watching fighters who don't get hit... I think it's absolutely beautiful and that's why I mean I think he is one of the older school trained fighters and the boxing approach most are using against him just won't work because he's been doing this for so long. He's in fantastic shape for his age and he hasn't taken much head trauma.
"So if you understand anything about skill development you'll know that he's got so many hours of that purposeful practice. Not only purposeful practice but actual competitive experience, so I don't think that same approach will beat him. But I think the way we strike in mixed martial arts and some of the movements we use and some of the approaches we use, he won't have the software ready ignition system to that way of moving and way of standing. It would be different to him. So that and a couple of sly elbows as well."
