Conor McGregor's coach predicts UFC 254: Khabib Nurmagomedov vs Justin Gaethje
We are mere hours away from the most anticipated fight of the year at UFC 254 as Lightweight Champion Khabib Nurmagomedov takes on interim champion Justin Gaethje. Conor McGregor’s long time coach John Kavanagh is the latest to chime in with the prediction for the big-ticket fight.
Conor McGregor’s coach John Kavanagh took to Twitter to express his thoughts on who will walk out of the Octagon at UFC 254 with the undisputed lightweight championship.
He also provided his predictions for the rest of the card.
John Kavanagh tweeted out the UFC 254 fight card, crossing out the pictures of the fighters he thinks will lose. It seems that Conor McGregor’s coach has his money on Khabib Nurmagomedov to walk out victorious as he has drawn a line across Justin Gaethje’s picture.
Conor McGregor is all but set to take on Dustin Poirier early next year. However, while the former two-division champion wanted the fight to take place at welterweight, UFC president Dana White said the fight made “no sense“ at 170 pounds.
Conor McGregor is coming off a 40 second TKO of UFC veteran Donald Cerrone in January earlier this year. Dustin Poirier, on the other hand, is coming off an impressive albeit hard-fought win against 5th ranked lightweight contender Dan Hooker.
It is widely believed that the winner of this fight will get a shot at the lightweight title next.
Incidentally, both these fighters account for Khabib Nurmagomedov’s title defenses leading up to UFC 254.
Conor McGregor’s coach predicts wins for Robert Whittaker and newcomer Liliya Shakirova
John Kavanagh is widely regarded as one of the best coaches in the MMA circuit and his predictions will draw a lot of attraction.
Kavanagh has further predicted former middleweight champion Robert Whittaker to win against a former heavyweight and light heavyweight fighter Jared Cannonier. It is interesting to note the winner of the co-main event should get the next shot at Israel Adesanya’s middleweight title.
Kavanagh has also picked Walt Harris against Russian Alexander Volkov in their heavyweight encounter.
John Kavanagh further goes on to predict wins for Magomed Ankalaev over Ion Cutelaba (Light heavyweight), Stefan Struve over Tai Tuivasa (Heavyweight), Nathaniel Wood over Casey Kenney (Bantamweight), Alex Oliveira over Shavkat Rakhmonov (Welterweight), and Da Un Jung over Sam Alvey (Light heavyweight).
Interestingly he also predicts a win for UFC newcomer Liliya Shakirova over veteran Lauren Murphy in their women’s division bout at flyweight.
Let us know in the comments if you agree with coach Kavanagh’s predictions.