McGregor coach Kavanagh: UFC 194 headliner over in 60 seconds or 2 rounds

As you’d expect, Conor McGregor’s coach is confident about his fighter’s prospects heading into UFC 194’s pay-per-view headliner featuring a showdown with champion Jose Aldo.

John Kavanagh, the UFC interim featherweight champ’s longtime guide, can’t see the bout going remotely close to the championship rounds, he wrote in a guest column for Irish sports website the42.com.

“I’ve said from the start that I can see this being a two-round fight, yet another part of me can see it being over in 60 seconds,” he said. “But we give respect where it’s due because Jose Aldo has been the champion for a long time.”

McGregor hopes to unify the featherweight titles and claim his long-declared rulership over the 145-pound division on Dec. 12 at Las Vegas’ MGM Grand Garden Arena.

Kavanagh said the McGregor camp will move from Los Angeles, where they’ve been finishing up training camp, to Las Vegas on Monday for fight-week obligations.

This time around, there’s been no world press tour to promote the rivalry between McGregor (18-2 MMA, 6-0 UFC) and Aldo (25-1 MMA, 7-0 UFC). An expensive ad shot on the streets of Las Vegas was simply rebooted with a belt tacked to the Irish champ, who won the interim strap in July when a rib injury forced Aldo to withdraw from UFC 189 and McGregor went on to beat Chad Mendes (17-3 MMA, 8-3 UFC):

But for Kavanagh, the biggest change is the level of certainty heading into another mega-event.

“At this stage before the last fight back in July, we didn’t even know if there was going to be a fight,” he wrote. “We weren’t sure if Jose Aldo was in or out and Conor’s knee injury wasn’t looking great either. It was touch-and-go whether there was going to be a contest at all.”

Rumors of a McGregor knee injury circulated heavily prior to UFC 189. He denied any troubles when asked by MMAjunkie in a pre-event teleconference. But afterward, he admitted to suffering an 80 percent tear of his ACL, his second such injury after a decision win over Max Holloway at UFC Fight Night 26.

Kavanagh expounded on McGregor’s difficulty heading into the fight, particularly when it came to shedding the necessary pounds to make the 145-pound limit required by the interim title fight.

“Everything only came together with days to go, which was probably one of the reasons why Conor’s weight-cut was more difficult than normal on that occasion,” he said. “It doesn’t matter who you are; it’s impossible to stay 100 percent disciplined if there’s a strong chance that there won’t even be a fight.”

This time around, however, Kavanagh claims McGregor’s knee is healthy. Although ACL injuries can take between six months and one year to fully heal – former UFC welterweight champ Georges St-Pierre was absent 19 months from the cage after his first tear – the interim champ’s coach said he is on a good foundation for UFC 194.

“In his current condition, there’s no need for surgery,” Kavanagh said. “That’s a last resort which won’t be necessary. Conor has built up the muscles which support the knee so it’s rock-solid now and he’s looking great. We’re coming to the end of a good training camp and there have been no issues whatsoever.”

As a result, he added, McGregor’s weight cut for the fight has been without issue. He pointed to new training methods being used that he expects to revolutionize MMA training. The bigger issue, he said, was keeping the champion focused in training camp.

“One thing that did concern me was the demands that were being placed on Conor while he was preparing for this fight in Dublin by people who, to be fair, only meant well,” Kavanagh said. “I’m not going to lie; it wasn’t easy at first. The problem is that the more you do, the more people want. There was no end to the demand for pictures, meetings and interviews.”

One demand Kavanagh took no issue with is out-of-competition drug testing, which he said has been conducted by the Irish Sports Council for UFC anti-doping partner U.S. Anti-Doping Agency (USADA).

Kavanagh took a shot at a botched test attempted by the Nevada State Athletic commission in advance of UFC 189, which wound up being carried out by the Brazilian MMA Athletic Commission (CABMMA) after an American tester’s work visa was questioned.

“The Irish Sports Council are employed by the United States Anti-Doping Agency — who oversee the UFC’s drug-testing programme — to carry out the tests in Ireland and they’ve been at the gym numerous times over the last few weeks and months,” Kavanagh wrote. “Unlike some other fighters, we just don’t feel the need to make a social media announcement about it.

“A record of who has been tested — and when — is available to view on USADA’s website, so the information is there for all to see. I’ll tell you what the Irish Sports Council aren’t doing; they’re not asking for selfies at the end of a urine test or destroying samples, and we’re not getting the police involved or asking for visas and permits. We carry out the tests, as required, and then we carry on with our training. Simple.”

Now, comes the task of facing Aldo. Despite a record of seven title defenses and the rank of pound-for-pound best according to the UFC (Aldo holds the No. 2 spot in the NOS Energy Drink MMA pound-for-pound rankings), McGregor is a slight favorite to unify the belts.

To Kavanagh, though, the popular Irish fighter is a lock.

“He’ll probably try to slow the pace down and initiate some grappling exchanges,” the coach said of Aldo. “However, with Conor’s fight IQ and the manner in which he can read situations, even if Aldo comes out with a completely new style and approach, it won’t take Conor long to work it out. It’s almost like ‘The Matrix,’ in that he sees a new problem which is being presented, downloads the correct response from his brain and then executes the plan.

“I think it’s going to be really difficult for anybody at this stage to last longer than seven or eight minutes with Conor in that type of environment. If it’s not an extremely quick finish, I definitely can’t see it going beyond the second round.”

For more on UFC 194, check out the UFC Rumors section of the site.