Conor McGregor's coach John Kavanagh reveals what his 'favourite tradition' in all of sport is
Conor McGregor's coach, John Kavanagh, took to Twitter to reveal what his favorite tradition was in all sports. The former MMA fighter and the World MMA Awards "Coach of the year" for 2017 has an ardent following on social media.
He referred to the tradition of Haka, the posture dance in Māori culture. It is often performed by a group, with vigorous movements and stomping of the feet accompanied by rhythmic chants. It was made prominent on the global stage by the sports teams in New Zealand.
Retweeting a post from New Zealand men's national rugby union team, the All Blacks, Kavanagh said:
"My favourite tradition in all sports. Came out to a haka for my final fight. Felt invincible."
John Kavanagh's last fight was against Robbie Oliver in England in 2003, which he won via armbar in the first round. Kavanagh retired after a subpar career in MMA, winning three and losing three of his fights. However, all of his wins came via submission, showing his proficiency on the ground.
The Irishman has been working with Conor McGregor at the Straight Blast Gym in Dublin ever since 2008. Having seen the rise to superstardom of his protege, he has celebrated much success himself.
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John Kavanagh talks about the gameplan for Conor McGregor's trilogy fight against Dustin Poirier
Conor McGregor is taking on Dustin Poirier in the main event of UFC 264 in a fight that he needs to win. There's a lot of pressure on both McGregor and John Kavanagh to get their strategy right this time around.
'Notorious' has lost two fights in a row at lightweight, and his knockout loss against Poirier at UFC 257 raised questions about him being at the top of his game.
John Kavanagh spoke to Adam Catterall from BT Sport and revealed that the problem was more mental than physical. He said:
"We have to fix that technical detail which I don't think it's like having to fix everything; it's fixing a small enough area. [We need to] get that back into the whole game, you know, not going in with sort of a boxing mentality, going in with an MMA mentality."
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