CONOR MCGREGOR HAS been boosted by news that an old friend will be there to support him in his second UFC fight on Saturday night.
The Dublin featherweight takes on Max Holloway of Hawaii in Boston’s TD Garden and will be looking to add to his reputation, which has sky-rocketed since a debut victory over Marcus Brimage back in April, with another win in the Octagon.
McGregor travelled to Massachusetts with coach John Kavanagh last weekend and is currently putting together his final preparations ahead of Friday’s weigh-ins. Problems attaining visas meant only a two-man team made the trip but it has been confirmed that they will also be joined by Tom Egan – the first fighter from the Republic of Ireland to take part in the UFC.
Back in 2009, Dublin’s 02 Arena hosted UFC 93 where Egan, representing Kavanagh’s Straight Blast Gym Ireland, took on John Hathaway but suffered a first round TKO. He has since relocated to the US, where he made his comeback earlier this year and last Friday followed it up with another in the CES MMA promotion.
McGregor and Egan became friends when the former moved from Crumlin to Lucan with his family as a teenager. They would spend their days at Egan’s house developing their raw MMA skills before later going on to join SBG.
Speaking to TheScore.ie from Boston, Kavanagh said: “If Conor was here with just me or just his mother or 15 people he would still walk out and do the same thing. It doesn’t make all that much of a difference who is there on the night. The training was done in the 10 years leading up to this.
It’s great that we have Tom now too. He has showed us the sights since we got here. I’ve done most of my cornering on my own so the fact we have Tom there is a luxury.
“This is Conor’s 16th professional fight so we know the routine and know what we have to do. We’re being more than well looked after.
“Tom did his first proper cornering a week or two a go which was lucky for us as you have to get a licence over here. It’s not like back home because you have to go through a lot of paperwork.”
