Round of applause for John Kavanagh’s poker face.
Kavanagh is the kind of head coach who seldom lets his emotions get the better of him but while his face might suggest that he’s as composed as can be, his heart rate tells a different story.
In an interesting experiment into what a top-level mixed martial arts coach goes through on fight night, Bellator examined Kavanagh’s heart rate two weeks ago, when he cornered James Gallagher for his comeback clash against Steven Graham.
Kavanagh hardly had time to catch his breath as he cornered for more fights than not at Bellator 217 on February 23 and his heart rate clearly spiked when ‘The Strabanimal’ took to the cage.
The Straight Blast Gym Ireland head coach enjoyed a quite relaxing Saturday afternoon before doors opened but watching his fighters is clearly stressful business and his heart rate appeared to skyrocket above 125 in the evening.
https://twitter.com/Bellator_Europe/status/1104712650984964097
Gallagher stayed true to his promise to submit Graham via rear naked choke inside three minutes in the main event of the Bellator’s return to Dublin’s 3Arena so thankfully for Kavanagh, the high heart rate soon subsided.
With SBG fighters involved in more fights than not at Bellator 217, Kavanagh deserves plenty of credit for the rise of mixed martial arts on these shores and it’s endearing to see how much his fighters’ performances impact his emotions.
