John Kavanagh On Cornering Conor McGregor: 'He Would Certainly Have To Convince Me To Go Again'

Coach John Kavanagh says his relationship with Conor McGregor is a solid as ever before but that he will take some convincing to be in his corner should he return to the Octagon.

Kavanagh has been keeping busy cornering SBG fighters all over the world since McGregor’s loss to Khabib Nurmagomedov in October, but hasn’t shied away from talking about the Irishman’s loss at UFC 229. Speaking to the Irish Independent this week, Kavanagh was asked for an update on McGregor and whether UFC fans will see him return to the UFC Octagon anytime soon.

“Honestly? I don’t know. Will he fight again? I don’t know,” Kavanagh told Paul Kimmage this weekend. “I know him as a person and know that coming off two losses – even though one was boxing – will be hard for him. But he’s 30, two kids, and has a big whiskey deal that’s making him more money than fighting ever did.

“Would you get up in the morning to be punched in the face? I don’t think so. But he’ll probably call me tomorrow and say: ‘What did you say that for? I’m fighting in March.’ So I don’t know.”

Should McGregor actually want to continue his fighting career, Kavanagh says he will only continue to be in his corner should be fighting under specific circumstances. At this point in his career, Kavanagh implied that he only wants to be part of fights are significant to building McGregor’s legacy and not just throwaway fights that don’t mean anything.

“He would certainly have to convince me to go again,” Kavannagh said. “Yeah, I love him. I love the whole journey we’ve had but I’d need a good ‘why’. It might be Diaz again because he promised that fight. It might be a rematch with Khabib. But if it was just: ‘Well, they want me to fight that guy’ I think I’d say, ‘I wish you the best.’

“He has a wife and two kids now and I don’t want him taking more hits than he needs to,” Kavanagh continued. Khabib hit him with a punch in that fight that he has never been hit with in his career. And even Superman slows down at some stage.”