John Kavanagh, Conor McGregor’s MMA head coach, was informed by Dana White, UFC President that Jose Aldo can no longer face Conor McGregor due to a rib injury that Aldo acquired during his training.
The match was supposed to be for The Featherweight Title which will happen at UFC 189. Kavanagh informed McGregor of the issue, but it was not a problem with McGregor, according to the fighter, “they are all same”. McGregor was set to face Chad Mendes, instead.
In an interview with ESPN.com, the head coach has this to say:
ESPN.com: “McGregor has brought a camp of 10 people over from Ireland to train for this fight. What’s that experience been like?”
Kavanagh: “There’s not going to be some beginner here that is moving awkwardly. The way Aldo got hurt, by what it sounded like, was training with a novice guy he didn’t know that well. That, to me, isn’t too smart, having someone like that training with your champions. Everyone here knows Conor. I can be very comfortable knowing that they know how to train with Conor.”
ESPN.com: “If Aldo does make it to the fight, does the pre-existing injury makes it difficult for him to come out looking good? If he loses, then it’s ‘Wow, he lost to Aldo and Aldo was injured.’ If he wins, it’s ‘Well, of course he did. Aldo was injured.'”
Kavanagh: “If he wins, he’ll be very wealthy with a gold belt around his waist. That’s a win, right? I think whatever situation you have, there are pros and cons. The pros here [are] that he’ll be UFC champion. He’ll have a belt. He’ll have a lot of money. The con is that a certain subset of fans will come out with that, but there are always those no matter how the fight goes down. There’s going to be a group of fans that aren’t happy and aren’t convinced anyway and I hope that’s always the case — because you never want to have a situation where you’ve beaten everybody and the next day you look at the headlines and fans are saying, ‘I don’t really want to see him anymore. He’s perfect. Let’s move on and just the watch ‘ insert name here.'”
ESPN.com: “The willingness to switch to Mendes at any moment speaks volumes of McGregor’s confidence, but doesn’t it affect training? Aldo and Mends are incredibly different, stylistically.”
Kavanagh: “Someone told me that in Conor’s last 10 fights, five times the opponent has changed with days to go. Five times. That’s 50 percent of the time. I’m never surprised to hear an opponent has changed. So, our training is always general. To think I wasn’t doing wrestling training anyway? No. Aldo is a good wrestler. He’s used takedowns in fights. It’s mixed martial arts at the end of the day. I think a lot of people get obsessed with a specific opponent. What if your opponent walks out in a different stance? What then? Are you going to turn and look back and say, ‘I didn’t train for this.’ No. We train for MMA and MMA is striking and grappling. There are too many examples of that approach, training for a specific opponent, not working. Of course, if it switches to Mendes, there will be differences. Mendes is shorter and there’s probably more of a chance for a takedown, but it’s not going to be, ‘Alright, rip up the game plan.’ It’s still going to be hands high, walk him down, call him a little b—-, slap him around, get him emotional and win the belt.”
ESPN.com: “So, the obvious question: Reports are that your opponent has a rib injury. Will you target it?”
Kavanagh: “Did you see the tweet I put out? I tweeted a video of the movie Rocky, where he’s pounding the ribs with the meat hanging down. (Laughs). I did that a bit tongue-in-cheek. Like I said to Conor last night, there is a Sun Tzu quote: “Know thy self, know thy enemy. A thousand battles, a thousand victories.” It would be a lie to say, ‘no.’ Knowledge is power and to have knowledge of a potential weakness is power. But we’re not getting too specific with it. Maybe he’s bull——–. Maybe it’s all a lie. Maybe he heals up and walks into the fight not feeling a thing. So, again, we’re not tearing up the game plan. Not everything will be about going for the ribs.”