Conor McGregor's coach details his preparation for upcoming clash against Dustin Poirier at UFC 257
With just a little over a month before fight night, Conor McGregor's training camp for UFC 254 is in full swing.
The former two-division UFC champion will return to the Octagon in the main event of UFC 257 opposite Dustin Poirier in a match that could have significant title implications.
Conor McGregor recently shared a photo of himself looking in tip-top shape ahead of UFC 257, and according to striking coach Owen Roddy, Team McGregor is following a very strict schedule.
Speaking to Petesy Carroll and Niall McGrath of The Bash MMA, Roddy shared that Conor McGregor's training camp is like a finely-turned machine:
"Everything is…the timing is perfect. Up early, train on time, go home, eat, review the first session, back in for the second session on time, do the session, review the session, back in, it’s a finely-tuned machine that Conor has running there, and it’s f*ckin’ working."
Roddy noted that this was the same setup they had leading up to Conor McGregor's bout against Donald Cerrone back in January. Conor McGregor won that fight in just 40 seconds.
Conor McGregor's coach believes bout with Dustin Poirier should be for the title
After Khabib Nurmagomedov announced his retirement at UFC 254 back in October, the future of the lightweight division has been unclear.
Is Khabib still the champion? Is Khabib coming back? Who should fight for the title next?
All these questions basically hinge on Nurmagomedov's status, whether or not he really has called it a career.
If he is indeed done with competition, Owen Roddy believes that Conor McGregor vs. Dustin Poirier should be for the UFC lightweight championship:
"I definitely think it’s the most obvious option for a title fight, so I don’t know what they’re doing, we don’t know what they’re doing in regards to that, but maybe they’re just hoping to see Khabib come back, I think that’s probably the most obvious reason that they haven’t made it into a title fight, especially with the fact that Gaethje was the interim champion, he lost to Khabib, but Dustin has a win over Gaethje, Conor has a win over Dustin. If Khabib does stay retired, there’s a lot of fights that will have to be played out, so many fights that can happen, the division is in a very exciting position, and then maybe Khabib comes out again."
Roddy also spoke about just how stacked the UFC lightweight division is, naming a host of possible other contenders for the 155-pound championship:
"It’s a very exciting division, there are so many good fights, you’ve got Gaethje, you’ve got Chandler, you’ve got Hooker, you’ve got Ferguson, you’ve got Poirier, and then even Dos Anjos is back as well, so there are so many fights that can happen, so it does leave the division kinda wide open and it makes for a lot of very exciting fights for very big rewards. I’m excited to be just looking at the division and seeing what the crack is, I think this is a cracking fight for Conor, and if he goes in there and does his thing, surely it has to be a title fight."