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Boxing

05th Apr 2017

John Kavanagh reveals the weight Conor McGregor is training to fight Floyd Mayweather at

He'll need to shed a few pounds

Paul Moore

Another weight cut on the way for ‘The Notorious’.

Hearsay, rumour, conjecture and smack-talk. Nothing definitive.

While all talk about the Conor McGregor versus Floyd Mayweather Jr. fight is still very much hypothetical, John Kavanagh has just given a very definitive statement regarding the world’s most hyped fight.

Conor McGregor’s coach was a guest on FOX Sports Australia and was asked about a potential fight against Mayweather. Of course he bloody was! Kavanagh responded:

“In my mind, it’s on. That’s the mentality we’re in…

“There’s a lot of fingers in the pie on this one. There’s different promotions, different organisations, different commissions that are involved, but as far as I’m concerned, I really believe it’s going to happen this year. That’s the mindset I have. Let the people in the suits worry about the paperwork. We’re training for it.”

Regarding perpetration for the fight, Kavanagh said that “we’re training different for it than the past” and that the projected weight being thrown around for the boxing contest is 147 pounds [67 kilos].

Considering how McGregor has struggled to make 145lbs in the past – Urijah Faber once said he ‘looked like a crackhead’ taking to the scales – such a cut will do the Dubliner no favours.

The size differential is something that former UFC middleweight champion Chris Weidman has spoken about. He told MMA Mania:

“This guy is a giant. You have to realize that Conor McGregor was the biggest 145-pound fighter the UFC has ever had.

“He cut so much weight to make 145 pounds. He’s going to be so big and so heavy. He’s going to be so much longer and taller than Floyd Mayweather. His head is going to be so much bigger. It’s just two completely different animals.”

In a very interesting interview, Kavanagh also clarified a statement that he claims he was misquoted on before.

After saying that it might be “simpler to train for boxing”, he commented:

“Boxing is one of the ten skills that you need for MMA, but now we’re only doing boxing, so we can drop wrestling, Jiu Jitsu and Thai boxing and all that. We can just focus on the boxing. The training will become simplified because we only have to do boxing.”

 

Take a look at the full FOX Sport interview here.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kj1RFprwnNU

Clip via – The Fight Life