UFC News: 'The Conor McGregor that the world fell in love with is back', claims coach
Conor McGregor's striking coach Owen Roddy believes that the Irishman will return hungrier than ever and the world will get to see the best of 'The Mystic Mac' come 18th January 2020 when he goes up against Donald Cerrone in the main-event of UFC 246. (h/t MMA Fighting)
Coach Roddy, as he is frequently referred to, spoke on MMA Fighting’s Eurobash podcast and insisted on the fact that McGregor's preparation for the fight against Cerrone has been way more intense than was the case ahead of the Notorious One's fight against Khabib Nurmagomedov at UFC 229 back in October last year.
“Yeah – we’re back. The one thing Conor has been constantly doing is working on his strength and conditioning – he’s constantly staying in shape and he’s constantly eating clean – and you can see that straight off the bat. Now it’s time for us to execute a game plan and go in and do it on the night. I’m very excited to be back working with him, and I’m very excited that he’s back fighting in the UFC.”
Roddy described the training camp so far and said that there is a proper structure to their training camp this time.
“The training camp is structured way better. The last camp was just a bit sporadic. For the past couple of months it’s been very regimented. We’re training at 11 and 7 every day. We’re doing strength and conditioning, whether it’s in the morning or evening, and then doing a technical session and it’s perfect. And you can see that’s reaping the benefits and rewards already from that.”
Watching McGregor train made Roddy believe 'the Conor that the world fell in love with is back'.
“I think when you start to see some footage of him training, he starts to do his interviews and he starts building the fight, you’re going to see the old Conor back…I can see that already. When people see that, they’re going to say, ‘That’s the Conor we fell in love with.’ He has that hunger again. A hungry, dedicated and motivated Conor McGregor is a scary dude.”