Notorious kicks were the difference
Thursday 16 July 2015 18:32, UK
Conor McGregor won the back-and-forth opening round against Chad Mendes before using his deeper energy reserves to claim the victory, his coach has explained.
The Irishman became interim featherweight champion with a knockout of Mendes three seconds before the end of the second round at UFC 189 last weekend in Las Vegas.
McGregor had spent significant time of the near-10 minute duration on his back due to Mendes' four takedowns but his coach John Kavanagh has detailed why the result was never in doubt.
Twenty-five minutes is a long time to be locked inside a cage with Conor McGregor.
"It was extremely obvious to me that Chad was getting very tired," Kavanagh exclusively told Sky Sports.
"He hit a few high-aptitude throws which look great but they cost him a lot of energy. He then expended a lot of energy just trying to hold Conor to the ground.
"If there's one thing you're never going to do, it’s tire Conor out. It was obvious to me that Chad was breaking slowly. I knew that, even if he managed to get through the second round, he would never have got through the third because he was too tired.
"Twenty-five minutes is a long time to be locked inside a cage with Conor McGregor."
Mendes was a short-notice replacement for long-time featherweight champion Jose Aldo, who withdrew from fighting McGregor due to an injured rib. But Mendes' fatigue issues were nothing to do with his late call-up, insists Kavanagh, citing his fighter's masterful body shots.
Kavanagh said: "It was nothing to do with being a short-notice replacement - he is a professional athlete who will not get tired after a few minutes' work. That's not how it works. Chad could have had a two-year training camp but he would have been tired quickly because Conor was hurting his body.
"In the boxing world, it’s well known what body shots can do but in MMA they're not used enough."
The American Mendes wrestled McGregor to the ground for large periods of the opening five minutes, opening a cut above the Irishman's eye with an elbow. Had the fight not ended just short of the second of five rounds, Mendes may have had an argument to have been two rounds ahead.
But Kavanagh, the head coach at Dublin's Straight Blast Gym, believes his man did enough to take the judges' scores even if they were ultimately unnecessary.
"It’s very short-sighted to give someone a round just because they got a couple of takedowns," he said. "I think you have to watch how the overall flow of a fight has gone.
"It was very obvious who was pressing forward, who was doing damage, and who was getting tired quickly. Conor won that round."
The 37-year-old coach, a former 3-3 MMA fighter in his own right, admitted nerves walking to the cage because of a blip in McGregor's preparation.
A knee problem prohibited his ability to train efficiently for the problems that Mendes could cause but, in the end, wasn't critical to the result.
"I won't lie - I was nervous as we walked out because Conor hadn’t done any wrestling in the build-up," Kavanagh continued. "We did everything at half-pace because I didn’t want to aggravate his knee.
"But Conor has been training for many years, the work is not done in two weeks."
