In the months building up to the Jose Aldo fight at UFC 194, John Kavanagh admitted his aversion to seeing Conor McGregor fight at featherweight for much longer.
The coach could see the weight cut taking its toll on his fighter.
McGregor headlined today's edition of our daily sports podcast, The Racket:
The introduction of George Lockhart - a weight cut specialist - to the mix a week prior to the fight eased Kavanagh's concerns. It still was not a painless cut, but it was easier than it had ever been.
Speaking on the MMA Hour with Ariel Helwani on Monday, Kavanagh had no problem with McGregor once again returning to featherweight.
He seems to have this weird genetics that he can look great at 170 and he can make 145; it's a weird body type. I'm quite sure how it works but he can. He always looks a bit scary on the scales, no doubt about it, but then you see him the next day and he looks fine. He has that ability to compete at '45, '55 or '70 - I think.
Asked for his preference of a fight, Kavanagh cited a rematch with Jose Aldo.
A return to featherweight - for a title defence against either Aldo or Frankie Edgar - was also Dana White's prediction for McGregor's next match-up.
Me personally, maybe the Aldo rematch, I’d like to see that again. I just think the first one was great for us, but it was a little bit unfulfilling, a little bit. I think Aldo has a fantastic set of skills, he was a great champion and I didn’t think that quite closed the chapter on that. So, let’s see a proper fight.
Or Frankie, he’s a great fighter as well. Frankie’s lost to Aldo and Aldo just had such an amazing run. He just got caught with that very, very hard shot and went down fast. That’s just how that fight went. But just for me, because I think I learned so much just watching it, to have a good back-and-forth fight, I just think it would be for me I’d get a year’s worth of material to coach off for the next 20 years.
Picture credit: Ramsey Cardy / SPORTSFILE
