HERE WE GO again.
From the fans’ point of view, I know it seemed like there was a long delay before the UFC officially confirmed the details of Conor McGregor’s featherweight title unification bout against Jose Aldo.
Yesterday, exactly one month since Conor defeated Chad Mendes at UFC 189, it became public knowledge that we’re heading back to Las Vegas again for the fight you’ve all been waiting for, which will take place at the MGM Grand Garden Arena on Saturday, 12 December.
There had been some speculation about the fight happening at the Dallas Cowboys’ football stadium in Texas instead. There would have been an element of curiosity about Dallas but I certainly would have been slightly happier to have the fight in Vegas.
We have a system in place there now: a house we can stay in, a gym we can train at, we know the routes, we know the venue. If all of those aspects were to be brand new to us in a different place, it’s not that it would have been a problem, but it would have been another — albeit minor — obstacle to overcome.
Again, that wouldn’t have been a major issue by any means, but it’s still one less thing to concern ourselves with. With Vegas, we’re in familiar territory. Basically it’s home.
This time we’re going to do most of our training here in Dublin, before flying to Vegas about four weeks out from the fight. Doing such a long camp over there for the last fight was an interesting experience, but now we’ll do most of the training here at home.
It’s nice to reflect on the Mendes fight because, at the highest level, most of Conor’s fights have been quite short so it was great to look at the footage of different positions and things like that. It was very exciting for Conor and I to study different areas of the fight.
Going into the Aldo fight, I can’t imagine how that doesn’t make his camp more concerned. Granted, Aldo stopped Mendes when they first fought — when there was a bit of fence grabbing involved — but the second contest lasted all 25 minutes. It was a very tight fight, yet when you look at Conor’s fight against Mendes, he might have been taken down a couple of times but on the feet — and in the general flow of the fight — it was very one-sided.
I can’t see how that wouldn’t give an opponent cause for concern. Of course, I’m very aware that MMA mathematics aren’t always as simple as that, but it’s still nice that they both have a mutual opponent at such a high level that we can refer to. In each case it unfolded very, very differently.
In spite of Conor’s impressive win against Mendes, some doubters still remain. That doesn’t come as a surprise to me either. Every fight Conor wins, people — whether they’re fans or fellow featherweights — will put forward a lot of reasons for why he won… and none of them will be to do with his fighting skill.
The doubters are always going to find an issue with his opponents, whether it’s short training camps, injuries, mind games… whatever it is about Conor’s personality, his wins are always overlooked and blamed on external circumstances. For those people, it never seems to come down to the fact that he’s just a better fighter.
And I hope that continues too because it will always make his next match-up more intriguing to people. It’s one of the main reasons why they’ll still be excited to see him fight again.
With Ronda Rousey, for example, she’s amazing to watch and she’s an incredible athlete and human being. However, there’s an element of certainty about her fights that means the best you can do is wonder, ‘Will it last more than a minute?’
With Conor, his detractors really believe that this next guy will be the one to beat him. In their eyes, he only won the last one because of luck. That drums up more interest and pay-per-view buys, which is very good for business.
Right now in the UFC, if you’re a featherweight and you want to make as much money as you can from your next fight, there’s only one person to face. It’s common knowledge now how much Chad Mendes’ money increased by for fighting Conor.
If I was a fighter in the 145lbs division, as much as it would be a daunting prospect, you are there for a reason. You want to make as much money as possible so calling Conor out makes sense. You’ll make more money from that fight than all of your other UFC fights combined.
There’s been concern expressed from some quarters about Conor not having had a break, between going from UFC 189, to coaching on The Ulitmate Fighter, to this next fight against Aldo at UFC 194 in December. However, what people have to realise is that this is the only thing Conor is interested in doing. He’s not interested in going on holidays or taking weeks off. Competition is what drives him.
I’ve been speaking quite regularly to him while he’s been coaching on The Ultimate Fighter and he’s having an absolute ball with the experience. Mentally it has been a complete break for him. He just sees it as a lot of fun.
He’s probably also developing a little more appreciation of my role; being the head coach, coming up with the lesson plan, organising the fights and all of that, so it’s a new experience for him but, most importantly, a very enjoyable one. This is as close as I can get to forcing Conor to take a holiday.
I definitely think you need to take a break after a fight, but for Conor that’s two days. He has a hyperactive mind and, within two days, he’ll start thinking about something that happened in the fight that he wants to work on in the gym. He’s not the kind of guy who can take weeks off. Considering the intensity at which he’s been training for the last 10 years, for him to do nothing for 48 hours is a long enough break. There’s absolutely no concern on that front.
He’ll come back home as soon as he’s finished filming The Ultimate Fighter and that gives us a solid three months before the fight. Let’s say that’s 14 or 15 weeks; 10 of those will be training at a high intensity. Even when he does get back, there are still a couple of weeks for him to work away at a moderate pace — as low as he would ever go — and, both physically and mentally, that will be more than enough of a break.
It was interesting to read more information this week about Jose Aldo’s drug test at his gym in Rio de Janeiro back in June. I’m not going to delve too deeply into that because, as is often said, both sides have a story and the truth is somewhere in the middle. However, it is very bizarre how it all went down. As usual, however, we’ll carry on by focusing on the things we do have control over, but… yeah… what a story.
This bout will also be Conor’s first after the UFC introduce their ban on the use of intravenous (IV) rehydration after weigh-ins. There’s a perception that it will make the cut to 145lbs more difficult for Conor and therefore accelerate his eventual move up to lightweight, but that isn’t the case.
It has kind of forced me to do a lot of research on the topic and I’ve subsequently been speaking to a lot of top nutritionists and doctors. I now have a process that we’re going to use; basically, it will be oral hydration but with the exact same impact, so the ban is really of no consequence.
The IV is nice because with it being a needle in the arm, the fighter is free to talk and eat simultaneously so it doesn’t really interfere. But when it comes to medical patients, it’s really only used when they’re unable to drink. If they’re able to drink and you know what you’re doing, it makes no difference.
The plan was to go up to the lightweight division soon anyway, but the move from IV to oral hydration has nothing at all to do with that.
From a personal viewpoint, the timing of this fight has the potential to be perfect in terms of having an enjoyable festive period. I’ve had so many Christmases where some of our Straight Blast Gym fighters have been competing on New Year’s Eve or in early January, which essentially means that there’s no Christmas because the training camp runs right through it.
I’m very much a family man and spending time with my parents especially is extremely important to me, but I’m not going to get carried away about that just yet because I know I’ll probably end up jinxing it and the UFC will announce something like Gunnar Nelson headlining a show in early January.
It would be a nice scenario to imagine if I’m heading back to Dublin with the undisputed UFC featherweight world champion to enjoy a nice Christmas. I’m certain that’ll be the case, but I’ll wait for another little while before getting excited about having an extended Christmas break. Who knows what’s around the corner?
Speaking of Gunnar Nelson, by the way, for the benefit of everyone who’s been tweeting me to ask if he’ll be fighting at UFC Dublin: A couple of welterweights have been offered that fight, but apparently they had a baptism or a haircut scheduled for that day so unfortunately it couldn’t happen. However, we’re hoping to get something finalised for him very soon.
