"He grabbed me by the neck!" - John Kavanagh reveals Conor McGregor is back to training "all facets of MMA"
Conor McGregor surprised everyone at Straight Blast Gym in Dublin, including his head coach John Kavanagh, when he showed up to participate in a general jiu jitsu class.
McGregor has been rehabbing a badly broken leg for over a year now, and only recently began to work mitts again. Getting back on the mat for grappling sessions is a new step forward in his recovery, and Kavanagh was happy to see it. He told The Mac Life:
"I don't know if you can see the marks [on my forehead], he just kind of showed up by surprise and of course he grabbed me by the neck and I was subjected to a couple of rounds by this 2000 pound gorilla. And I came home, walked in the door, and Orlagh went 'What the f*** happened to you? What's wrong with your head?' I said 'Oh, Conor showed up' and she just kinda rolled her shoulders and went 'Yeah that makes sense.'"
"We had a great roll around. I think that's my first time grappling with him since the lead up to the last fight. So it's been a while. He's back healthy now, he's able to do all the facets of MMA training. He kind of remarked at the end of the session, 'Well that's day one.' And I said 'Nah, that's more like day 100,000. You had a bit of a break there but that ain't our first time doing this.'"
Watch John Kavanagh describe his grappling session with Conor McGregor below:
McGregor has been making slow but steady progress in his quest to return to the octagon by the end of 2022. There were some doubts as to whether 'The Notorious' would be capable of bouncing back from a fully snapped leg so quickly. However, with McGregor on the mats and capable of fully training, a return sometime in the next five months certainly sounds possible.
Conor McGregor shuts down boxing bout with "nobody" Jake Paul
Jake Paul has been chasing a Conor McGregor fight since his first foray into boxing in 2020. McGregor had previously said "Never say never" when asked about a potential fight with Paul, but for the most part has ignored Paul's antics.
However, on a recent episode of The MMA Hour, Jake Paul once again suggested a fight against Conor McGregor was worth too much money to not happen.
“It’s got to happen. Why not? He’s a businessman, I’m a businessman, and that’s $75 [million] to $100 million for both of us.”
McGregor shot the idea down on Twitter, writing:
"You've 2 fights and done 70k buys. You are a flop, kid. A nobody."
you’ve 2 fights and done 70k buys.@MMAFighting @arielhelwani @jakepaul 😂 you’ve 2 fights and done 70k buys.
@MMAFighting @arielhelwani @jakepaul You are a flop, kid. A nobody.
The response is good news for Paul, who has had trouble drawing out responses from McGregor in the past. The tweets only encouraged the YouTube star turned boxer to fire off an even more aggresive callout of McGregor, and it's likely there'll be many more where that came from.
The facts are the facts. Conor should have learned from his boss Dana White that I’m not the one to play with it. Dana been hiding from me since last year. https://t.co/y9wbMhmWIs