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Time for "Coach" Kavanagh to earn his pay

Conor won two belts with this coach.
Winning one belt in one weight class is one of the highest accolade a coach and fighter can achieve as a team.
Prime Conor was easy to watch.

in other news:
Prima Donnor
“anyone behaving in a demanding or temperamental fashion or having an inflated view of oneself and a narcissistic attitude.”

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prima_donna
 
Dustin's boxing specifically his check hook are what stopped conor from putting combos together and allowed dustin to work the leg more. The narrative that the calf kicks were some super weapon that won dustin the fight is a false one. Dustin was trying to explain this on the JRE, but Joe just interrupted him mid explanation to talk about what an amazing tool the calf kick was lol
 
Sad Dad said:
Dustin's boxing specifically his check hook are what stopped conor from putting combos together and allowed dustin to work the leg more. The narrative that the calf kicks were some super weapon that won dustin the fight is a false one. Dustin was trying to explain this on the JRE, but Joe just interrupted him mid explanation to talk about what an amazing tool the calf kick was lol
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The low kick was the biggest reason Dustin won, that’s pretty obvious watching the fight back today
 
daazndood said:
this made me laugh, but why Cambodian? lol
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I was trying to think of a random country and that came to mind. I wanted to go with Laos but I doubt many people on here know where that is.
 
Final Say said:
The low kick was the biggest reason Dustin won, that’s pretty obvious watching the fight back today
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My whole post was my argument against that. Conor doesn’t like to get hit and takes damage poorly. Iirc Dustin said something along the lines of “if Conor lost the fight because of those kicks it’s a good thing he’s never fought Justin” and has said multiple times that the amount of damage Conor took was pretty much standard for high level lw fights these days. Truth is Conor just doesn’t wear adversity that well and his ability to adapt on the fly is not very good. He doesn’t have that special intangible ability to surpass his limits and evolve over the course of a fight. Conor is one of the most lethal finishing artists in the history of the sport and he’s near unbeatable under peak conditions in his prime, but he has some very exploitable weaknesses. If your heart is not fully in the sport and in battle your mind will try to find ways to lose. I hope conor at some point has a rebirth and resurgence and we can see him break through but until that happens I see him being a 50/50 fighter at the elite level at best. I wouldn’t be upset to be proven wrong though, at all.
 
Seismic said:
He messed up the first Nate fight by failing to recognize Conor's tempo was too high and to issue instructions to Conor to pace himself and he inexplicably had no answer for Dustin's calf kicks throughout the fight but he's had months now though to formulate a game plan so it's time for him to prove his worth.

Conor's legacy is secure but Kavanagh desperately needs a victory here to salvage his reputation. A win and he might not be the Irish Edmond after all but another loss will have history record him as a mediocre coach who won the Powerball when Conor walked through his gym door.
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problem is Kavanagh doesn’t know how to make Conor grow beyond his current level. He’s now became a bit of a yes man. One of the camps Conor said he turned up whenever he felt like it and kindve made it up as he went along. As a coach you need to be structuring this. Mike Brown really structures the training and sparring for his fighters, changing it up on a weekly basis and I don’t think Kavanagh sadly is ok that same level.
 
Sad Dad said:
My whole post was my argument against that. Conor doesn’t like to get hit and takes damage poorly. Iirc Dustin said something along the lines of “if Conor lost the fight because of those kicks it’s a good thing he’s never fought Justin” and has said multiple times that the amount of damage Conor took was pretty much standard for high level lw fights these days. Truth is Conor just doesn’t wear adversity that well and his ability to adapt on the fly is not very good. He doesn’t have that special intangible ability to surpass his limits and evolve over the course of a fight. Conor is one of the most lethal finishing artists in the history of the sport and he’s near unbeatable under peak conditions in his prime, but he has some very exploitable weaknesses. If your heart is not fully in the sport and in battle your mind will try to find ways to lose. I hope conor at some point has a rebirth and resurgence and we can see him break through but until that happens I see him being a 50/50 fighter at the elite level at best. I wouldn’t be upset to be proven wrong though, at all.
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The part of this that I always reiterate is that Conor never deals with adversity well, if he’s losing a fight he’s gonna lose. He doesn’t adapt well in the fight and switch it up, if it’s not working he’s kindve like a deer caught in the headlights. But this is also because apparently he’s used to beating up on his sparring partners and not finding people that really challenge him.
 
He sounds like a reasonable coach and is involved in bettering Irish amateur MMA. I like his views on being paid in pro sports, that donating to charity is the purpose of it. And that losses aren't key, but learning from them is.

But he's not really Conor's coach. Conor does what he wants. So Kav's success as a coach, fame aside, isn't really dependent on how Conor does. His role is more of a supporter than a instructor nowadays.

Of course Poirier beat Conor largely because of good planning. So a planner would be needed for Conor. But there really is none. It's not a MM/Hume type of dynamic between them.
 
Seismic said:
He messed up the first Nate fight by failing to recognize Conor's tempo was too high and to issue instructions to Conor to pace himself and he inexplicably had no answer for Dustin's calf kicks throughout the fight but he's had months now though to formulate a game plan so it's time for him to prove his worth.

Conor's legacy is secure but Kavanagh desperately needs a victory here to salvage his reputation. A win and he might not be the Irish Edmond after all but another loss will have history record him as a mediocre coach who won the Powerball when Conor walked through his gym door.
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Kick his foot in with your face.
 
Feardoesnotexistinmydojo said:
The part of this that I always reiterate is that Conor never deals with adversity well, if he’s losing a fight he’s gonna lose. He doesn’t adapt well in the fight and switch it up, if it’s not working he’s kindve like a deer caught in the headlights. But this is also because apparently he’s used to beating up on his sparring partners and not finding people that really challenge him.
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Hmm I used to agree, but round two round three khabib showed otherwise.


I just think he always blows his gas tank throwing hard punches so he always fades, and because he can only win before he fades, it looks like he gives up.
 
Seismic said:
He messed up the first Nate fight by failing to recognize Conor's tempo was too high and to issue instructions to Conor to pace himself and he inexplicably had no answer for Dustin's calf kicks throughout the fight but he's had months now though to formulate a game plan so it's time for him to prove his worth.

Conor's legacy is secure but Kavanagh desperately needs a victory here to salvage his reputation. A win and he might not be the Irish Edmond after all but another loss will have history record him as a mediocre coach who won the Powerball when Conor walked through his gym door.
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He is and forever will be Irish Edmond and certainly won the lotto the day a young McGregor walked through his door

I'm not a fan of Conor as a man, but he is a great fighter and that is despite his bum team.

Just imagine how Great he would have been with real coaches instead of these yes men?
 
John Kavanagh's attitude has always been WIN OR LEARN.

I guess he LEAAAARNED a shit ton in the last few years. lol
 
Kavanagh is a shit coach. He's never had a top fighter besides Conor, and it wasn't because of John. He seems like a good dude but he's not a real coach, he acted like calf kicks were something new, that he'd never seen before. He talks about letting Conor run his own camp, staying out of his way. John is a glorified "Yes Man". He's only there for clout and money. Without Conor he'd have a failed gym, and most likely on welfare.
 
The dude is just a bjj coach. He is not a real head coach. Conor just has respect for him to say you are my head coach, he is literally Irish Edmund.
 
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