UFC: McGregor Training For Poirier Trilogy With ‘MMA Mentality’
John Kavanagh says that Conor McGregor will go into the trilogy fight with Dustin Poirier with a new mindset, having gone into the rematch at UFC 257 with a boxing mentality.
McGregor TKO’d Poirier in the very first round in their first meeting at UFC 178 in 2014. ‘The Diamond’ got redemption earlier this year at UFC 257 however, with his own TKO victory. The UFC is now working on a rubber match between the two, as per Dana White.
“Fricking Calf Kicks”
In their rematch, McGregor had no answer to Poirier’s brutal calf kicks, which ultimately led to his downfall. However, Kavanagh told BT Sports (as transcribed by The Mac Life) that ‘The Notorious’ has already started working on the adjustments for the trilogy fight.
“I’m hoping we can get that rematch done in the summer,” Kavanagh said. “We wanna get that one back, gotta figure out these fricking calf kicks, how to use them and defend them. We’re pretty confident we have that sorted out now. He looked excellent everywhere else. Give us a rematch, and we have the rematch, I feel.”
Kavanagh also praised Poirier and his head coach Mike Brown at American Top Team, for coming up with the perfect game plan in the rematch.
“Fair play to Dustin and Mike and the guys,” Kavanagh said. “Even when he was getting clocked, he got hit a couple of times hard but he still didn’t start getting into a trading war or try and gas himself out trying for takedowns. He had this plan, that he had the check hook and he had the calf kick and they were just going to keep doing it and hope it would work, and it did.”
MMA Mindset
McGregor was criticised by many for going in to the rematch with a boxing mentality, and one eye on a huge boxing showdown with Manny Pacquiao. Kavanagh however, said that the Irishman won’t make that mistake again.
“I don’t think any amount of pre-fight shenanigans would have changed that or any interview requests or any screaming fans, so we have to fix that technical detail, which it’s not like having to fix everything, it’s fixing a small enough area,” Kavanagh. “Get that back into the whole game, not going back in with a boxing mentality, going in with an MMA mentality. Conor was always famous for his movement, his ability to change stances, his bounce as he would say. We got to bring that back. It’s there, it’s under the hood, it’s not skills that have to be learned or relearned, they just have to be re-ignited.”
Trilogy In The Works
Kavanagh also revealed that talks for the trilogy fight between McGregor and Poirier have already begun.
“We’ve already started that process,” Kavanagh revealed. “Wouldn’t it be great to do it again in the summer, maybe in Vegas in front of 20,000 screaming people if we can get the world back open.”
Who wins the trilogy fight between Conor McGregor and Dustin Poirier?
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