Conor McGregor of Ireland punches Dustin Poirier in a lightweight fight during the UFC 257 event inside Etihad Arena on UFC Fight Island. Jeff Bottari, Handout Photo via USA TODAY Sports/Reuters/file
Conor McGregor's obsession with a big boxing match led to his stunning defeat to Dustin Poirier in UFC 257 in January.
McGregor's coach John Kavanagh said "The Notorious" almost exclusively concentrated on boxing training while preparing for his second bout with Poirier.
This was perhaps in anticipation of a possible superfight with Filipino superstar Manny Pacquiao.
“I describe it as a game of spinning plates,” Kavanagh said in Boxing Scene.
“You’re spinning the boxing plate and you realize the wrestling plate is about to stop, so you have to go spin that one, and then you have to go spin the jiu-jitsu one, you have to spin the kickboxing one."
Poirier stopped McGregor in 2 rounds after chopping down the Irishman with vicious calf kicks.
With the loss, the Pacquiao super fight went up in smoke as he agreed to take on Poirier in a rubber match.
“We got a bit obsessed with the boxing one. There was talk of a big boxing fight after that. Our bad, our mistake, our fault – no one to blame," said Kavanagh.
"We just have to make sure we have to keep spinning that kickboxing plate and all the other aspects of MMA and get ready for the rematch.”
Kavanagh is confident McGregor will be able to come back from his loss from Poirier. All he needs is to bring back the MMA mentality, said the coach.
"The knock on him was the boxing mentality going into an MMA mentality. Conor was always famous for his movement, his ability to change stances, his bounce as he would say, and we need to bring that all back. It’s there; it’s under the hood. It’s not like the skills need to be learned or even relearned. They just have to be reignited and we have to start that process,” he said.
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