John Kavanagh has spent 22 years watching Conor McGregor do things that shouldn’t work, so he isn’t about to start doubting him now. Speaking on Tuesday’s edition of “The Ariel Helwani Show,” the longtime SBG Ireland head coach said McGregor is attacking his rehab after the torn ACL that wrecked his UFC 329 return in July, and that the former two-division champ still intends to fight again.
“I’m just too long around him. I think we’re now 22 years around each other, and I’ve just seen him do too many things that seem to be impossible, and he does them repeatedly,” Kavanagh said. “So if he says he [fights again], I’m not going to doubt him.”
Kavanagh, 49, figures McGregor won’t be back to MMA-type training until next year. He liked what he’s seen so far, though. “He’s been very aggressive with his therapy and his recovery,” he said, adding that McGregor looks to be moving around quite well. He also pointed out that McGregor has gone from an ACL injury to the Octagon in nine months before. “I just don’t feel he’s done with competition just yet,” Kavanagh said. “If anybody can, he can.”
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69 seconds in July
The Max Holloway rematch at UFC 329 was over almost before Kavanagh sat down. McGregor opened with a jumping switch kick, a move Kavanagh said he’d used to start every sparring session in camp, landed awkwardly and tore his ACL. Kavanagh said he was still putting the bucket down in the corner when he looked up and saw his fighter falling. McGregor slipped again after getting up, and he was finished 69 seconds in.
Kavanagh used the Helwani appearance to shut down talk that McGregor walked in already hurt. “And for the conspiracy theorists out there, he walked in with no injury. Zero injury,” he said, later adding, “I can guarantee you that he was 100% going in.” He also pushed back on the idea that McGregor looked less confident than usual beforehand.
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The Holloway fight was McGregor’s first in five years. His previous outing ended with a broken leg at the end of Round 1 in his trilogy bout with Dustin Poirier at UFC 264 in July 2021, and he hasn’t had his hand raised since knocking out Donald Cerrone in January 2020. Holloway and McGregor’s knees apparently don’t mix, either. McGregor beat a young Holloway by unanimous decision back in 2013 but blew out his other knee doing it. “So maybe we just have to stay away from Holloway. It’s bad for our knees,” Kavanagh joked.
One left, then who knows
As for where McGregor fights next, Kavanagh left the door wide open. “I think he’s got one left now with the UFC, but maybe that could be the last UFC fight,” he said, mentioning McGregor’s own promotion before teasing a bigger curveball: “Who knows? Maybe Ki MMA, we can sign him.” That’s Scott Coker’s new promotion, set to launch in 2027 with a big featherweight tournament, and Kavanagh announced on the show that he’s joining it in an ambassador-type role. McGregor would still have to fight out his UFC deal before any of that is on the table.
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My take: Kavanagh is the one person who’s earned the right to say “if anybody can, he can” with a straight face. Still, the detail that sticks with me is that switch kick, drilled a thousand times in Dublin and gone in one awkward landing. If McGregor comes back next summer, I want to see what his first move is.
