Conor McGregor’s head coach John Kavanagh has warned Irish fight fans not to book your flights to Las Vegas just yet as the date of Conor McGregor’s title fight isn’t set in stone.
McGregor (17-2) earned a shot at Jose Aldo’s featherweight belt with a second round TKO victory over Dennis Siver last week and many had believed that the title fight would take place at UFC 187 on May 23.
But Kavanagh, who’s been with McGregor for 10 years, said “I get a lot of tweets and messages from people wanting to book their flights and I would just say hold on until the UFC officially announce it.”
Kavanagh, Ireland’s first Brazilian Jiu Jitsu black belt, was speaking on Newstalk this morning and revealed the schedule shake-up saying that the much-anticipated clash between “The Notorious” and Aldo could take place in “mid-summer maybe.”
The only numbered UFC event scheduled for July is UFC 189 which means that could likely be the event where the grudge match finally takes place.
Kavanagh also spoke about the fact that the promotion was unable to make the 145lb encounter happen in Ireland, with Croke Park having long been associated with the fight.
“I would certainly love it to be Ireland,” Kavanagh said. “Unfortunately there were a few problems. It would have had to have been in a stadium, maybe Croke Park, but the problem with that is you have a curfew of 11pm.
“They did a big event in Stockholm at the weekend but they didn’t start it until 2a.m. or 3a.m. Stockholm time for pay-per-view time in the States.
“They have a massive drop in revenue and also the cost in setting up Croke Park with all the major screens, etc. It was just a financial thing unfortunately.
“We’re hoping that we go over there and win the belt and then hopefully twist their arm a little bit more and get the first defence in Dublin.”
