We’ve come a long, long way together.
In 2001, John Kavanagh set up a gym in Dublin. Initially self-taught in martial arts, Kavanagh met Matt Thornton, owner of the Straight Blast Gym franchise, a year later. His gym came under the SBG umbrella.
13 years on and one of Kavanagh’s fighters, Conor McGregor, will fight for a world title at UFC 189.
Two other SBG fighters – Cathal Pendred and Gunar Nelson – will fight on the event’s undercard, this Saturday. The team’s training camp wound down, over the weekend, and the fighters will now focus on individual tweaks and making weight.
To mark the end of camp, Kavanagh posted this superb message on Facebook:
The end of a long training camp. We don’t necessarily do “camps” as training is year round, but would be hard to call this anything else. The No.1 goal has been achieved – Software updated, no damage to Hardware.
During the last 10 weeks there has been significant evolution in all our sequences which have been developed over the past 10+ years. Improvements in striking and grappling, the focus being efficiency. Always.
Four athletes set to compete in the IMMAF World Amateur Championships and three in the UFCs biggest card of the year – the main event dude [McGregor] being largely responsible for it being one of the most anticipated MMA cards of all time.
Kinda crazy when you think where it all started – in a shed in Phibsboro!
Well the training is done, the event has been sold… now it’s time to do the damn thing! Let’s get it on!
Here is the original post.
The end of a long training camp. We don't necessarily do "camps" as training is year round…but would be hard to call…
Posted by Coach John Kavanagh on Sunday, July 5, 2015
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