Conor McGregor’s head coach John Kavanagh has said that it’s hard to appreciate what his fighter’s life is like since his professional boxing debut with Floyd Mayweather Jr. last year.
McGregor was paid a reported $85 million for the fight but has yet to return to mixed martial arts as he waits to discover his faith at Kings County Criminal Court in Brooklyn later this month to face charges of assault and criminal mischief after a bus attack at the UFC 223 media day.
Kavanagh confirmed that McGregor is in negotiations with the UFC about a potential return to the promotion but added that it’s difficult to fully understand what the Dubliner’s life is now like since the Mayweather fight.
“It’s hard to appreciate what his normal day-to-day life is like,” Kavanagh told ESPN’s Brett Okamoto.
“He has no normal day-to-day life. I don’t think people have any clue of just how deeply involved he is in many other businesses.
“Whether it’s his whiskey brand that’s launching soon, his big commercial deals that he’s doing, he’s talking with various movie producers and his property portfolio, he’s a very, very smart guy in terms of utilising this time – which he’s obviously a world superstar – in order to make sure that he’s financially set and his grandkids, and great grandkids, are financially set.
“A lot of fighters in the height of their fighting – when a business opportunity comes along – they push it away because they’re deep in fight camp.
“Suddenly their fight career is over and all these big business guys that were interested in being involved with them are gone.
Kavanagh continued: “I think we are all starting to feel the years whiz by. We only noticed the other day that we’re already past the halfway point of this year. When’s the first Christmas ad going to come out?”
Got to catch up with John Kavanagh (@John_Kavanagh) yesterday in Las Vegas. He’s here to corner two of his athletes at TUF Finale on Friday. More to come from our conversation, but here’s a video going over the latest on Conor McGregor. https://t.co/gR8CMqmnOJ
— Brett Okamoto (@bokamotoESPN) July 5, 2018
UFC Lightweight champion Khabib Nurmagomedov also confirmed that the UFC is currently working on a fight between him and McGregor.
“I’m going to defend my title, Inshallah (god willing), this year. This year, I want to defend my title,” the UFC’s lightweight champion said during a Live Raise Broadcast.
“About opponents, I don’t know, to be honest. I don’t know. But the UFC is working on fight, me versus Conor.”
McGregor earned a reported $99 million in a 12-month period https://t.co/9fPjMjC0y1
— SportsJOE (@SportsJOEdotie) July 5, 2018
