On the latest episode of the GAA Hour, Wooly chats to new Meath boss Andy McEntee about the flawed Dublin Championship and catches up with new Clare joint manager Donal Moloney. Listen below or subscribe on iTunes.
“I feel it is going to be early and it is going to be devastating.”
Conor McGregor is back to his confident best.
The UFC 196 loss to Nate Diaz has been avenged and he is back where he started 2016 – preparing for a shot at the UFC lightweight champion and hoping to become the promotion’s first ever fighter to hold two divisional belts.
The main changes are seismic. Eddie Alvarez has dethroned Rafael Dos Anjos and McGregor is now a cardio hound.
After running out of steam in his first clash with Diaz, McGregor spent hundreds of thousands on his toughest training camp yet. He drafted in a range of new faces, training partners and equipment to ensure he could go hard in the championship rounds. It paid off, on August 20, when he took an unanimous decision win over the Stockton native.
Following that win, John Kavanagh, McGregor’s coach, told The MMA Hour:
“Now he’s obsessed with it. He said himself that he is a blue belt in that kind of [cardio] training but he will be a black belt.
“Whatever window of opportunity was there for other fighters is gone now because that is his obsession now. We’re taking a few days off but then we are starting up those cycles again and working our way towards that purple belt.”
McGregor appears to be back training at night, rather than the short, sharp day-time sessions before UFC 202. A midweek tweet showed him grappling in the early hours of Thursday morning with Jiu-Jitsu proponent Dillon Dannis and Kavanagh looking on.
Preparing to make history. Once again pic.twitter.com/Fj6eNgMaFb
— Conor McGregor (@TheNotoriousMMA) October 13, 2016
During his Q&A session on LAD Bible, last night, McGregor offered further insight into how he is getting in shape for his November 12 date with Alvarez.
“I’m very happy. We’ve been preparing intelligently. We have continued on the cardio vascular training I’ve been doing. We’ve been monitoring that very closely. Now that my body fat is dropping, I’m getting a lot leaner for 155. Before, when I was preparing for 170, I was stuffing my face to get to 168.
“Now, at 155, I’m shredding out nicely and I find my V02 max has improved very much so. I’m feeling good.”
V02 max is the maximum amount of oxygen an athlete can use. Get that up and you can dig deeper and push harder for longer.
As for McGregor’s next opponent, the sparring has been focused on ‘five-foot-seven, stocky, stuffed wrestlers with mediocre boxing’.
The Notorious respects Alvarez’ boxing and wrestling skills but remarks that his fist is larger than the lightweight champion’s head. One solid connection, he feels, and history will be his.
