10-year coach Owen Roddy pulls back curtain on Conor McGregor's UFC 189 camp

Conor McGregor

Conor McGregor’s striking coach has echoed the brash Irishman’s proclamation that the late replacement of Jose Aldo with Chad Mendes is of little concern to him.

McGregor (17-2 MMA, 5-0 UFC) was scheduled to meet featherweight champion Jose Aldo (25-1 MMA, 7-0 UFC) next weekend in UFC 189’s pay-per-view main event at MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas, but the Brazilian withdrew from the bout earlier this week due to a rib injury.

Having been placed on standby when news of Aldo’s injury first emerged, Mendes (17-2 MMA, 7-2 UFC) has been drafted to face McGregor for an interim featherweight title.

According to Owen Roddy, who has trained McGregor for more than a decade, the 11th hour change of opponent will not trouble the 26-year-old Dubliner in the slightest.

“It was a bit crazy all right, but it won’t bother Conor,” Roddy told MMA junkie. “He makes it clear all the time that there is no opponent; he really believes that. He believes once he goes in (and) performs his best, there’s nobody that can touch him. I’m sure it annoyed him a little bit, but it wouldn’t have got to him too much, to be totally honest.”

Roddy spent more than a month in the “Mac Mansion” just outside Las Vegas working with McGregor on his standup technique, just as he has for all his UFC bouts. Now back in Dublin, where he runs his own gym, Primal MMA, the former bantamweight fighter returns to Las Vegas on Monday to rejoin McGregor. He said the entire camp has been tailored to ensure “Notorious” reaches optimum condition come July 11.

Owen Roddy

“This one (camp) has been much better,” Roddy said. “When you’re in camps in Dublin, you have to go home, and you’re taking your mind off the game. But in that house, everybody’s goal was to get Conor in the best shape of his life. A lot of our sessions in the UFC gym would have been late because we are trying to get Conor to peak at the same time he’ll have to peak on fight night. It’s a matter of trying to get his body to perform at its best at that particular time.”

Roddy has been impressed by how McGregor has refined his methods of preparation by placing a significant emphasis on movement and flexibility, which has yielded marked improvements. The approach has been adopted by Gunnar Nelson and Cathal Pendred, the other SBG fighters competing at UFC 189, and has served to further enhance the team’s unity of purpose.

“Conor has got very smart in how he’s training,” Roddy said. “He doesn’t overdo it, because for years we all used to – sparring hard, wrestling hard and training three or four times a day. Now Conor gets up and does an hour’s yoga. Then he’ll move around, go do a session, and come home and stretch. It’s very controlled, but it is doing wonders for him.

“He’s got so much faster. He used to be fast, but now that he’s got more flexible, he’s way faster and stronger in all these different positions. He always had huge power in his hands, but the power he is now generating in his spinning kicks is devastating.

“It’s amazing to have ‘Gunni’ (Nelson) and Cathal there that are all so motivated and ready to go. They’re all competing and in the best shape of their lives, so it’s made for a fantastic camp.”

Roddy, who also coaches his own stable of fighters, said that working with McGregor is a singular experience given his unorthodox take on striking, but over the years, thet have developed an almost subliminal rapport.

“Conor is very creative, and you never know what he’s going to want to do,” he said. “He’s up all night thinking of MMA, and it’s on his mind 24/7. So when we’re on the pads, I’m basically a facilitator. Because we’ve done this together for so long, I tend to be able to pick up what he wants to do very quickly. I’ll throw in the odd idea, and if he likes it, he’ll keep. If he doesn’t, he’ll throw it away.”

Roddy had already been under the tutelage of John Kavanagh for two years when a teenage McGregor first walked through the doors of SBG. Even then, he said, McGregor exuded the same swagger, with the most prominent difference now being his obsessive dedication.

“From Day One, he had that confidence about him,” Roddy said. “As he got a little bit older and mature, he started to take it more serious and put more work in. In his early days, he didn’t train as hard, but then it changed. Any time he got tapped in jiu-jitsu, he’d be straight back on the mat looking to fix the problem, and (it was) the same with wrestling. MMA is on Conor’s mind 24 hours a day. When comes home from training, he’s thinking about it. When goes to bed, he’s thinking about it. And I’m sure he probably dreams about it.”

In regards to the forthcoming showdown with Mendes, Roddy is adamant McGregor will comfortably dispose the Team Alpha Male standout before the third round.

“Mendes has a powerful overhand right, and that’s really it,” he said. “For me, I just don’t think he’s going to be able to get close to Conor. Not only does Conor have very long arms, but he fights at range, where he bounces in and out, so I think Mendes will have a hard time closing the distance.

“I think maybe the first or second round. In a 25-minute fight, the odds of you being hit in the face is very high, especially against Conor McGregor. Once he does that, the end is near then. It’s matter of how long Mendes can stay in there, but nobody can take a beating from Conor for 25 minutes.”

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