Conor McGregor’s coach dishes on star UFC pupil’s intense sparring battles with TUF 31 contestants
As The Ultimate Fighter 31 gets underway, viewers will get a deeper look into Conor McGregor and Michael Chandler's time as coaches, but some wild moments are happening behind the scenes. Long-time coach John Kavanagh has detailed watching the Irishman sparring with each of his students.
Fans are happy to see 'The Notorious' in a more intimate setting as they'll get to witness his antics for numerous weeks during his time on TUF 31. There has only been one episode released thus far and it didn't go to plan for the Dublin native as his fighter was finished inside 10 seconds by UFC vet Roosevelt Roberts.
While recapping Conor McGregor's actions with Laura Sanko, John Kavanagh detailed what it was like for the former two-time champion in the TUF house and what antics he got up to, saying:
"This was the first time I've trained with Conor in a while. He's coming back from the injury and he'd been with the Fast crew doing strength and conditioning to get himself back to where he can do MMA-style training... MMA sparring with Conor is pretty intense... I thought we'd do MMA-style drills to make sure everything's holding up and what does he do? He spars every contestant and he's going through everybody like a buzzsaw. That was pretty exciting to see how much he could do right off the bat... He didn't look like he'd missed a beat."
As stated by Kavanagh, McGregor was unable to do any training following his horrific leg break against Dustin Poirier last time out. As he looks to return to the octagon, it will fill his fans with a burst of excitement to know he's back training to his very best.
Check out what John Kavanagh had to say about the superstar in the video below.
All the confirmed matchups for Conor McGregor and Michael Chandler's teams on TUF
As mentioned, Roosevelt Roberts got off to a winning start in emphatic fashion with an early knockout of Nathan Jennerman, but who else is fighting throughout the TUF season?
Usually, each time a fighter wins on The Ultimate Fighter, the winning coach is rewarded and given the chance to decide the next matchup, which is not the case this time around.
In the opening episode of TUF 31, Conor McGregor and Michael Chandler were tasked with numbering their fighters and matching them up based on their number. So, unlike earlier seasons, viewers were introduced to every opening fight on the show.
Unlike past seasons, the #TUF31 opening round matchups were all decided in the first episode. https://t.co/dC1t8fFlVo